Critics have described plans to turn Leicester's central lending library into a job advice centre as "ridiculous".

The proposals would see the equivalent of 14 full-time posts cut and books taken off the shelves.

Leicester City Council plans to move the main lending library away from Belvoir Street into the Bishop Street reference library.

The scheme will save the council £228,000 as part of £19m budget cuts over the next three years.

Colin Jones, of Bushby, retired from the council's library management team 20 years ago.

He said: "I have no faith in Leicester City Council – the money they save from doing this will surely be far less than what they'll have to spend to carry out their plans.

"Library services are important and valuable for the general character of society."

Leicester writer Bali Rai said: "It's a ridiculous idea.

"The more we downgrade libraries the less opportunity people who don't have an academic education have to access books.

"I'm just amazed they are going to spend money on doing this.

"Unemployed people can't necessarily go to college.

"Libraries are one of the best places to educate themselves and to find training information."

Regular library user Nick Knight, 50, of Stoneygate, said: "It seems clear there is a policy to free up space in the central library to make way for a centre paid for by a Government grant."

Councillor Andy Connelly, cabinet member in charge of libraries, said it was a "difficult but necessary decision".

He said: "I wouldn't want to say we will have exactly the same level of books on display as we do in the lending library now. We don't know how many books will be readily available yet.

"There are two large areas which are not accessible by the public at the reference library and the intention is to bring them into use.

"We have continued to invest in libraries.

"We've put £50,000 into the city's book stock fund last year and a new library is opening in New Parks next month."

Coun Connelly said he would be "disappointed" if any compulsory redundancies took place and that the plan was not a result of a decline in library users. Figures show more than 450,000 people visited the central library in 2006/07 compared to 422,000 in 2008/09.

During the same period, numbers dropped from 289,000 to 248,000 at the reference library.

Coun Connelly said the money saved would be used to refurbish the reference library and cover the cost of extra opening hours.

The cash would also pay for replacing public computers in libraries across the city and any left over would be put into the book stock fund.

Gary Garner, of the Unison union, said: "Levels of literacy in Leicester are such that there ought to be more and greater investment in libraries, resources and programmes which encourage people to use those facilities."

A "multi-access" centre for the unemployed was opened at Leicester Adult Education Centre, next to the central lending library, in October last year.

The idea is that once the books have been moved, the centre will expand into the old library building.

The new centre is being funded from the Government's working neighbourhoods fund.

The proposals are set to be given the go-ahead by the council next Wednesday.