Carlisle’s culture and leisure boss has said that the city’s £50,000 pop-up park was a success and that the executive would not be dragged down by naysayers.
Carlisle City Council met at the Civic Centre on Tuesday, for the last time before the election on May 5.
Following the last meeting of the full council, a pop-up park has been set-up in the city centre. The park is designed to give residents a relaxing environment amongst the hustle and bustle of the city centre and was made possible by a £50,000 Welcome Back Fund.
But it has been met with mixed reaction from the general public on social media and some of its features have had to be taken away for repair after being damaged.
Councillor Les Tickner, deputy leader of the Labour opposition asked the Conservative leadership on Tuesday if they feel they have “badly misread the feeling of the public in spending £50,000 on this feature”.
But Councillor Stephen Higgs, culture, heritage and leisure portfolio holder said: “I have to say that I don’t accept the feeling that the public has been misread. I have on several occasions since the Greenmarket project was unveiled witnessed large numbers of people using the new facilities as they were intended.
“In particular it was delightful over the Easter weekend to see young children playing in the area and enjoying the small animals.”
But in a follow-up question, Cllr Tickner said: “In my view, door-knocking and people that have rang me up, I think it’s been badly misread.”
Cllr Higgs responded: “Of course if you spend too much time playing in the dark depths of social media, you’ll soon find the usual whingers and naysayers.”
The deputy leader of the opposition said that those struggling with “the highest taxation in 70 years” have a right to voice their opinion.
But Cllr Higgs told members that the money spent on the Greenmarket project came from the Welcome Back Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund.
“While the amount spent does seem a lot, there has been no direct call on the council tax payers of Carlisle and none of the funding could have been spent on any other area of council activity.
“Of course they have a right but we do not want to be dragged down by nothing but negative comments.”
