A MASSIVE package of proposed cuts has been approved by Bradford Council's ruling executive.

Libraries, community halls and public toilets are among services set to be targeted as the authority prepares to slash £82m from its budget over the next two years.

A cut of £8 million a year from care for the elderly and disabled is also among the measures.

And in total, a further 416 jobs would be lost across the authority by 2019, on top of the 5,000 lost in the past five years.

Council leader, Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, said the authority would soon have to get by on the money it raises through council tax and rates.

She called on the Government to invest in infrastructure so the local economy could thrive.

Cllr Hinchcliffe said one example was including Bradford on the HS3, or Northern Powerhouse, rail line between Leeds and Manchester.

She told Tuesday's executive meeting: “It’s incredibly important we get a stop for Bradford district. We have 530,000 people on a branch line. That’s not sustainable for our economy.”

The proposed cutbacks will now go out for consultation before being finalised in February.

As part of the package, Holden Hall at Oakworth, the Mechanics' Institute in Denholme, Silsden Town Hall and Harden Memorial Hall all face closure unless community groups take over ownership.

All public toilets – apart from those at the Mirror Pool in City Park, Bradford – would shut.

Libraries, many of which are already having to move to volunteer-run arrangements, will face further cuts. No details have yet been provided of exactly how or where the axe will fall.

Festivals and events, street lighting and road-sweeping would also face cutbacks.

Social care for the elderly and disabled would be transformed to focus on preventative work and efforts to keep people living independently in their own homes for as long as possible.