LOCAL charity South Lakes Action on Climate Change has donated £100 to the Keep Ulverston Special (KUS) legal challenge fund.

KUS is fighting a planning decision made in April 2013 which gave the go ahead to Frederic Robinson to develop the old Hartley’s Brewery at the edge of Ulverston town centre into a large supermarket.

KUS has notified SLDC of its intention to pursue a legal case against the planning authority.

SLDC chair Jo Magne says: ‘We’re supporting KUS’s brave fight against the planning decision because the environmental effects of any new development must be taken seriously.

“We’re very disappointed that SLDC appears to have failed to do this. The science on climate change is very clear - it is happening - and we need to do everything we can to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels including through development decisions.

“Building a large supermarket which is superfluous to requirements, as SLDC’s own research says, and would be dependent on customers driving to it, is very short sighted."

KUS spokesperson Ceri Hutton says: ‘We have had a good response to our fund raising and this is a very welcome addition to our coffers. This is a lot of work for an unfunded group but we believe we must take SLDC to task for failing to do their job properly.

“Our legal advice is that SLDC has ‘failed properly to analyse, assess, consider or in any way grapple with the potential environmental effects of the development’ which is damning.”

Anyone who would like to donate can do so via http://keepulverstonspecial.co.uk/fighting-fund.