COUNCILLORS have clashed over the cuts to Worcestershire's mobile library service - with one accusing County Hall's leadership of "ducking and diving" over it.

A fresh report has been published looking back on the last year within the library service during a time of unprecedented change.

The report, which includes all the responsibilities under Councillor Lucy Hodgson, the cabinet member for localism and communities, makes no mention of February's changes which saw 38 per cent of mobile library stops deleted.

At the time, bosses decided to reduce the number of stops from 420 to 267 and visit each area once every month instead of every three weeks to save cash.

The report does not detail those events but does highlight how the council has allowed community groups to take over the running of some libraries, which has been credited with no closures taking place.

But a line in it about how the policy "helped us to avoid closing libraries" was challenged by Labour group leader Councillor Peter McDonald.

"That's a blatant lie - it says we haven't closed libraries but the mobile library service is gone from my patch," he said.

"Why doesn't this report reflect the truth instead of all this ducking and diving."

But he was challenged by Councillor Hodgson, who defended the move during a full council meeting.

"We have not closed any libraries - with the mobile library service we have re-modelled it," she said.

"Across the county, we took the decision that where residents are within three miles of a static library, they can use that static library and we also contacted everyone affected by that change to see how we could help them.

"As far as I am aware everyone is happy, it has been a success."

The move means 48 towns and villages now no longer get any mobile library service at all including the likes of Worcester, Norton, Upton, Whittington, Welland in Malvern, Westlands in Droitwich and both Charlton and Wick in Evesham.

The old four vehicles were reduced to one, which is state-of-the-art and has Wifi and meeting room space.

The vehicles stop for 15 minutes in each location for people to drop off and collect books, with the changes aimed at saving £100,000 a year.

In return for the cuts, the council beefed up its 'at home' library service so people who are unable to reach the new bus can get books dropped off at their home, giving everyone some kind of access.

* To see what we said about this earlier this year go HERE.