TWO political leaders have crossed swords over council plans to spend half-a-million pounds on buying an empty building and converting it into a 'Kendal enterprise hub' for businesses.

South Lakeland District Council is in negotiation to buy the former Connexions building at 124 Highgate - next door to The Brewery - although it has declined to confirm the exact location due to ongoing negotiations.

But opposition Tories called the idea a 'disgusting waste of taxpayers' money' and has accused the council of 'rushing it through'.

The Tories said in a statement: "The business plan and details of the deal have been kept secret by the council. The cost, town and purpose, was only released into the public domain thanks to petitioning by Conservative councillor David Williams."

Cllr Williams, the leader of the Tories on SLDC, said: "This council is shedding assets in places like Ulverston and Windermere, selling off commercial space it fails to rent, but now wants to set up shop with more office space in Kendal. What kind of message to residents does that send?"

A vote for the centre was taken behind closed doors and was passed by the Lib Dem majority.

However, SLDC has pointed out that the discussion has to remain in private because it contains commercially sensitive information.

Windermere Tory councillor Ben Berry said: "This is a very misguided attempt at supporting local business. Half a million pounds is the equivalent of a 6.5 per cent cut in council tax for every single household in South Lakeland.

"Only local Lib Dems could ever think this was a good idea."

However, SLDC leader Cllr Peter Thornton, for the Lib Dems, hit back saying that local Conservatives were voting against jobs and housing.

" It’s exactly a year since they voted against our local plan, the consequence of which would have been to leave us at the mercy of developers," he said. "Now they vote against this plan to provide a much-needed facility in Kendal. This proposal is a commercial proposition involving the purchase of a building, which is why our urgency procedure was applied, it was debated both in Cabinet and in council and clearly is not being decided in secret."

A spokesman for SLDC added that the recent SLDC employment land survey shows 20 per cent of businesses are looking for new office space, of the 828 businesses which responded to the survey.

He said SLDC has also received a number of recent enquiries from businesses requesting information about office space and also been contacted by agents saying they struggle to find the right premises for clients.