A meeting of the South Lakeland District Council Overview & Scrutiny Committee has today (Friday 15 September) rejected a proposal from Conservative Councillors to refer decisions regarding the future of the New Road Car Park for further scrutiny by the Full Council of SLDC and proper consultation with the public.

The decision to endorse the decision to close New Road car park, which received the support of the Liberal Democrat and Labour members of the committee, chose to ignore repeated requests from several members of the public to refer the decision. 

The meeting had reviewed the decisions following a ‘call in’ process from three Conservative Councillors, James Airey, Kevin Lancaster and David Williams.

Ben Berry Leader of the Conservative Opposition also called into question why only two out of the seven members of Cabinet had attended a meeting during which their decision was to be scrutinised.

Conservative Councillor James Airey, who called in the decisions, said: “This is a shoddy process, overseen by a shoddy Cabinet, and a shoddy decision has been made which goes against the will of the public as very vocally expressed at a recent series of public meetings and again at today’s meeting.”

“The public can, once again, draw their own conclusions as to why local Liberal Democrats are choosing not to have the decisions of their leaders made available for further and proper scrutiny.”