A South Cumbrian said she was incredibly disappointed with a decision to uphold the relocation of Ulverston’s library service to the town’s Coronation Hall.
Members of the cabinet for Westmorland and Furness Council ratified the decision to move the library service from the King’s Road building into Coronation Hall at a meeting on October 15.
The communities and environment scrutiny committee had asked the authority to reconsider its decision, labelling the initial consultation not fair and transparent.
Barrow and Furness MP Michelle Scrogham said: “I’m incredibly disappointed that the Westmorland and Furness Cabinet has chosen to ignore their own scrutiny panel who were advising them that the consultation they carried out was not adequate.
“Whilst they like to talk about involving local people, and being community led, their actions show that in reality they just ignore the views of local people.”
But, a spokesman for the authority said it clearly did not ignore the recommendations from the scrutiny committee.
They added: “We were very grateful for their input and constructive challenge on areas where we can make improvements.
“Scrutiny provided us with useful feedback and recommendations and we have embraced the majority of what they suggested including that we will carry out additional engagement with key stakeholders and we will look at how the council carries out any future consultations with a view to developing a new consultation framework.”
Council leader councillor Jonathan Brook told the cabinet the authority took the conclusions of the scrutiny committee seriously.
Cllr Brook previously said: “Having reviewed the details of the consultation and the report considered by cabinet on September 10, 2024, we are satisfied that the consultation carried out was fair and transparent.”
Following the scrutiny committee decision, the cabinet approved a proposal for the local authority to develop a general framework and set of standards around the conduct of consultation to inform future work.
The council also committed to carrying out additional engagement with key stakeholders to further articulate the outcome of the library and Coronation Hall options appraisal process and why some options were discarded.
Mrs Scrogham claimed the council spent £56,000 on the consultation document for the relocation of the library service.
The Labour MP said: “The £56,000 they spent on the consultation document now seems like an even bigger waste of money, when they had clearly already decided the outcome.
“That money could have been spent on vital public services, rather than this sham document.”
In response a spokesman for the council said: “Placing the community and community views is at the very heart of what we are seeking to achieve and we feel that we carried out a very comprehensive process to ensure that we listened to local views and opinions on this important matter with over 1000 responses received to our consultation.
“In Ulverston our overriding priority was to identify and agree a solution that provided a safe future for both the library and the coronation hall, both of which are valuable community assets.
“Despite what some are saying, we want to assure residents that the provision of an effective library service in Ulverston was our overriding priority and that future has now been secured as a result of the decision to collocate the library with the Coronation Hall.
“We are confident that this decision, given the current financial climate, is a real win-win for the people of Ulverston and we look forward to working with local residents as we move ahead with these exciting plans.”
