The holy books of Muslims, Jews and Christians will be stocked side-by-side at Kendal Library if a Cumbria County Councillor gets his way.

Coun Roger Bingham, who represents Lower Kentdale and holds the cultural portfolio on CCC's cabinet, believes the county's main libraries in Kendal, Barrow, Workington, Whitehaven, Penrith and Carlisle should stock the religious books of the world's main religions.

He intends to ensure that the Koran, Talmud and King James Bible are accessible to anyone who is interested, including religious students and tourists, as part of a drive to improve library services.

"Half the nation's Islamic population lives within 100 miles of South Lakeland, " he said, adding they might visit and want to find a Koran.

Only 0.7 per cent of Cumbria's population is non-white but Coun Bingham, who attends church twice on a Sunday and is an Anglican lay preacher, said that did not "mean we have to have narrow minds and exclusive minds".

Coun Bingham said: "One must bear in mind that most people in the world are not Christian."

Senior librarian at Kendal library Hester Gorman said she agreed with the principle of Coun Bingham's drive but added there was little demand for holy books.

She said the library currently had in stock: one copy of an interpretation of the Koran; two large print versions of the King James Bible; but no copies of the Talmud. Mrs Gorman said: "I shall make sure there's a copy of the Talmud on the shelves as soon as possible."

However, the Rev Alan Billings, vicar of St George's Church, Kendal, wondered if Coun Bingham was well informed. "You cannot have the Koran in any other language but Arabic," he said, adding few people would understand it and would not therefore be able to broaden their knowledge of another culture.

"I think it's admirable that he should want the holy books available but if you say all the holy books of all the religions, then you've got a whole library."

Junie Joseph, a project officer with Mosaic, an organisation which brings ethnic minorities to the Lake District National Park, said: "We would want people who go to national parks to be comfortable and if that means having a Bible at a library to support them, so be it."

Other initiatives being introduced in Cumbria's libraries include extra opening hours at Christmas and the opportunity to order library books from post offices in the north of the county, through a new link service.