| Opposition councillors have criticised West Berkshire Council’s Liberal Democrats for diverting funds for library books to pay for an extra public relations officer.
Conservatives are furious that a promised £100,000 investment to improve the range of books at local libraries has been diluted by the need to “shore up the administration’s ailing reputation”.
Tory leader Graham Jones said: “This is really an insult to our library service. The effect of the cut over the last four years means that our book-stock fund has already been denied about £400,000.
“Even restoring the annual budget in full would not have reversed the damage done by that cut, so it is really galling to see the library service robbed of funding to pay for more council spin.”
Mr Jones added that the new PR job pays more than it would have cost to keep the container library open at Wash Common. | 
