Hampshire civic chiefs have been accused of ducking issues raised in a damning report of the library service.

The rebuke comes from retired publisher, Desmond Clarke, who lives in Andover Road, Winchester.

The former chief executive of publishing giant, D. C. Thomson, is calling for a county council task force to look at shortcomings revealed in a report published last week and entitled "Who's in Charge? Responsibility for the Public Library Service."

Mr Clarke said that while the council had plans to reverse the declining popularity of the service, it had not got to grips with other issues.

"The response from Hampshire County Council so far has not said what they are doing to tackle bureaucracy.

"What we need to do is get investment back into books rather than spending on bureaucracy, outdated administrative systems and too many people sitting in the back office."

The report revealed that less than a tenth of Hampshire's £20m library budget was spent on books.

It found the book collection was "out-of-date and poor". Spiralling salary costs swallowed up half the library budget yet libraries were not open at times to suit the public such as after work and on Sundays.

The bureaucratic costs of consulting upon, approving and recataloguing books purchased was massive.

The report estimated that £2m was spent on books worth £1.4m-a figure disputed by Hampshire.

The minister responsible for libraries, Lord MacIntosh, has called a conference to discuss the report's findings on June 21st. It is expected to generate new guidelines for councils and librarians.

Hampshire County Council co-operated with the author of the report, providing facts and figures for its library service to be examined as the case study.

But the results are embarrassing for the Tory-controlled authority, which is generally rated "excellent".

It was written by bookseller, Tim Coates, who has held top positions with WH Smith and Waterstones and now runs his own bookstore. Mr Coates said libraries must treble their spending on books, increase opening hours and redecorate and redesign libraries to attract readers.

The extra money could largely be found through streamlining systems and redeploying administrative staff to counter duty, he said.

But Richard Ward, head of Hampshire library staff, said many "back office staff" worked with the public through reading days for children and mobile libraries.

He said: "Tim is asking the right questions but we do not accept all his diagnoses or his treatments. It was written to be an eye-catching, headline-grabbing report.

"We do accept we can streamline procedures and we will-but there are not huge savings to be made because we are not spending anything like £2m."

Mr Ward believes redeveloping libraries as discovery centres is the way to reverse the decline in visitor numbers.

The attractions will include internet access, welfare advice and learning courses, creches and cafeterias.

Mr Ward said: "Books are only part of the story."

The chief librarian said the council was already redecorating libraries and gradually extending opening hours.

The book budget, which was cut by £1m over two years to fund the building work, is due to be restored to its former level next year.

But there are currently no plans to dramatically increase it, let alone treble it.

Mr Ward said: "Whether it will be increased or not is a decision yet to be made."

John Waddington, executive county councillor for heritage and recreation, said: "We have already reviewed the library service and have a strategy for the forthcoming years which is very much geared to setting up 10 discovery centres in parallel with redecorating the other libraries to make them more welcoming places."