EXCLUSIVE

by Thom Morris

tmorris@thekmgroup.co.uk

Bookworms in Ashford are responsible for the most overdue books in Kent, it was revealed today.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show between January 2009 and August 2010, 569 books were not returned to Ashford library - the highest in the county ahead of Ramsgate with 492.

The most popular tomes to have been swiped off the shelves and never returned are adult non-fiction titles which include cookery, knitting and travel books with over 2,000 of them being kept at home.

The non-fiction losses have cost KCC about £33,000.

Lowest on the choice of library books to go missing are reference books with just two titles having not been returned and costing £27.98.

Musical fans have also kept hold of 18 scores costing over £240 while comic book fans have held on to 118 graphic novels worth £1,140.

Further afield Folkestone library has lost 261 books, Cheriton has lost 90, Tenterden has lost 53 and Sandgate only four.

Across the county over 7,000 books have never been returned costing the taxpayer over £72,000.

But despite the £72,466 bill, KCC say there is a "slow but steady flow" of overdue books being returned to Kent's libraries.

Since August 618 books have been returned bringing the total number of missing books in Kent down to 7,274.

A KCC spokesman said: "We are obviously keen to encourage customers to return borrowed items.

"We do have a slow but steady flow back of long overdue items over time and so some items are not lost forever.

"We would encourage anyone who thinks they may have lost their books to come and speak to one of our staff as soon as possible."

Kent has close to two million library books, so less than one per cent of that total have never been returned. Between April 2009 and March 2010 over six million people checked out a book.

No library in Kent has managed to avoid a book going missing from the shelves.

The most popular month for visitors to swipe their favourite title was in September 2009 when 1,213 titles were failed to be returned. February this year was the lowest with only 48 books left overdue.