Lambeth Council has been accused of inventing “ghost libraries” to con government inspectors and protect its position as London’s most improved local authority in a scandal dubbed “librarygate”.

The accusation is based on the mysterious opening of three book-lending, cultural information hubs, the week before a vital inspection into the quality of the council’s cultural services.

The centres - one which lent out no books at all - issued only 25 library books before being closed after six weeks but were still used to bolster figures about library opening times in the audit commission inspection, according to an email sent from a cultural services officer and seen by the Streatham Guardian.

However a council spokesman denied the centres played a role in the inspection process.

Liberal Democrat councillor Andrew Sawdon said council officers told him the hubs - in Brixton Children's Centre, the Union Road housing office in Clapham and the Marcus Lipton Youth Club in Brixton - were opened because of fears the council would have failed its inspection for not meeting national standards for library accessibility.

The council memo seen by the Streatham Guardian confirms the local authority feared losing its one cultural services star would seriously undermine its efforts to retain its three star overall rating in 2008.

But a council spokesman said the audit commission would still have passed the authority without the cultural information hubs, which were intended to be temporary and set up at no cost to improve voter registration in the run up to the London mayoral elections.

He said they were also to improve access to council services for residents who would not usually go to a library or leisure centre and were well received.

But Coun Sawdon believes the hubs were opened not to benefit residents but to exploit a loophole in the inspection which focussed only on library opening times for the week ending March 31 and not the whole year.

He said: “The move was to pull the wool over inspectors’ eyes. After all, these services were not advertised and were hardly available to the general public - they were closed after they had served their purpose.”

He added: “It shows the council is built on sand. It decided to use the loophole because it was fearful that its other library target figures were not robust or reliable.

“I shudder to think what other stunts and wheezes they may have tried to pull on government inspectors.”

But the council spokesman said Coun Sawdon’s complaint sounded “more like a dose of sour grapes because we are an improving council”.