Council accused of cooking books with 'pop-up' libraries

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Three centres were opened across Lambeth in the week before an inspection was due into the quality of the council's cultural services.

But it has emerged that one of the new centres lent out no books, while the other two issued only 25, before all three were closed after six weeks.

Opposition councillors at the Labour-led authority claim officials decided to open the three temporary centres to improve the council's cultural services rating. Liberal Democrat councillor Andrew Sawdon said the centres were opened to exploit a loophole in the inspection, which focuses on library opening times for one week rather than the whole year. He said: "The move was to pull the wool over inspectors' eyes."

But council officers said the centres were for those who did not use larger libraries and had been a success.

A council spokesman said the Audit Commission would have passed the council even without the temporary services. He added that the centres were not part of preparation for inspection and "are not referenced in the Commission's inspection report".

The centres were in Brixton Children's Centre, Union Road housing office in Clapham and Marcus Lipton Youth Club in Brixton.