A DECISION to scrap the planned closure of eleven Wirral libraries was made without debate last night.

At a meeting of the ruling cabinet committee at Wallasey Town Hall, council leader Steve Foulkes refused to allow any submissions or discussion about the U-turn.

Cllr Foulkes, who is leader of the Labour group, and his Liberal Democrat deputy Simon Holbrook, announced on Wednesday evening that they were revoking the decision to close the libraries.

Many campaigners and the opposition Conservative group say they acted before the results of a local inquiry widely expected to criticise the council were published.

A draft copy of the report has been in the hands of Cllrs Foulkes and Holbrook and senior council officers for over a month for "fact checking" purposes.

The inquiry was ordered by former Culture Secretary Andy Burnham to investigate the council's handling of the library closure programme within its controversial strategic asset review (SAR), which proposed the shutdowns along with the disposal of other munipical buildings including leisure centres, museums, a theatre and a score of community halls throughout Wirral.

The inquiry's findings are currently with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw was to have made a decision on the libraries' future before the shock U-turn on Wednesday.

At last night's cabinet meeting, Cllr Foulkes denied the opposition claims and insisted he would not be "so precocious" as to pre-empt the Secretary of State.

He said the U-turn was made because cost savings originally antipicated for this year could not now be realised due to the length of time of the local inquiry and the delay in the report of its findings.

The committee unanimously agreed with his resolution that "the original cabinet decision to close 11 libraries and invest £20m in 13 new and modernised neighbourhood centres be revoked".

The resolution urged council officers to speed up other aspects of the SAR as "it is now essential to ensure that the remaining planned savings are made as quickly as possible".

Conservative group leader Jeff Green, who is not on the cabinet but attended in the public gallery, asked to speak but was refused. The whole matter was dealt with in ten minutes exactly before the committee moved on to other business.

The revoking order will be discussed and ratified at the next meeting of the full council, which won't gather again until November.