tmorris@thekmgroup.co.uk

Margate bookworms are the worst in the county when it comes to returning library books, it's been revealed.

Between August last year and September this year 1,345 books, CDs, audiobooks and DVDs were left to gather dust in Margate readers' homes.

Second worst were the readers at Maidstone library, who hung onto 989 books and audio-visual items longer than was totally necessary.

Coming in third were borrowers at Ramsgate library, who tucked away more than 900 items that should have been returned.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that across the county there are 17,835 books overdue with 1,519 audio-visual items still waiting to be returned to the libraries' shelves.

The number of missing books, however, has risen sharply on the previous year's figure of 7,892 - a 125% increase.

In monetary terms this equates to a whopping £161,000 of missing taxpayers' cash, while overdue CDs, DVDs and audiobooks come in at £31,866.

KCC said it was keen to stress that the missing books have not been written off and many return after reminders have been sent to borrowers.

The most non-returned item is adult non-fiction, followed by children's fiction, adult fiction, picture books and children's non-fiction.

In total across Kent there are 1.8 million books - down 66,794 books from last year - and there are also 147,000 CDs and DVDs in the county's libraries.