THE Stourbridge Library books found dumped in a skip were thrown away to clear the backlog resulting from a decade's worth of poor stock management, according to library bosses.

Following our exclusive report revealing stock that had mysteriously vanished from shelves had been chucked in a skip underneath the town's library - readers had been demanding to know why the books, mostly non-fiction, were thrown away and who was responsible for the decision.

And yesterday (Wednesday) council bosses finally decided to come clean - and confessed that 13,000 books have been removed from the Crown Centre library's shelves over the last year...out of a total stock of 112,000.

Council spokeswoman Vikki Marshall stressed: "Those which were in a reasonable condition were sold through book sales. Those unfit for sale were discarded to make way for new library stock in accordance with the normal national library management.

"While some books appear new they will have been withdrawn because pages were ripped out or they were out of date reference books such as old building regulations or travel books."

She said the books in the skip were taken to a waste transfer site for sorting, adding: "What can be recycled is recycled."

When asked why some of them weren't sold or given away to charity, library chiefs went on to say some of the thousands of books discarded were in fact put on sale at Halesowen Library on May 31 - at one of the service's regular book sales.

The News was also told further sales are planned - the next of which will be at Stourbridge Library in September - and from next week there will be a new books-for-sale shelf in the library.

The council has also had a re-think about giving books to charity.

Spokeswoman Vikki Marshall continued: "Normally charity shops have an excess of old books donated so they are usually reluctant to take old library stock, but we will have fresh discussions with a range of charities to see if their position may have changed.

"If a charity shop would like our discarded books in the future they are welcome to contact us."

She said Dudley Council was committed to improving its library service and as part of its modernisation programme - borough libraries will be extending opening times by 75 hours a week.

The £8,000 worth of promised new stock for Stourbridge will be on the shelves by June 22 - and from that date the library will open on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Stourbridge MP Lynda Waltho, however, has slammed Dudley Council's treatment of libraries - describing the book-culling saga as "one step away from censorship and book burning".

She added: "It just shows they're not interested in developing the library and its stock. What they're about is cutting costs and making it look good on the shelves as opposed to being useful to anybody."