VOTING on controversial plans to move disabled and taxi parking bays in Kendal's town centre has been postponed, with one councillor declaring them a 'recipe for chaos'.

At a meeting of the County Council Local Committee for South Lakeland, it was decided that a full consultation with affected groups was essential before members were willing to vote on the issue.

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Conservative councillor Matt Brereton said: "I think the feeling about this proposal from our side is potentially it's a recipe for chaos.

"Potentially we might end up with commercial drivers, taxi drivers, disabled drivers and occasional visitors all competing for the same parking spaces at different times.

"People have to get to the shopping precincts to start with, particularly those blue badge holders, that's the reason those spaces are where they are now so they can gain safe and immediate access to the retail premises in central Kendal."

The proposed experimental traffic regulation order would remove disabled parking spaces from Finkle Street and remove taxi and disabled parking spaces from Market Place.

The bays would instead be located where the loading bays are on Highgate and Stricklandgate, making those bays dual-use. The bays would be available for disabled or taxi parking between 11am and 4pm.

Councillor Stan Collins said he was 'disappointed' that he did not see anything in the report about any communication with disabled groups who might be affected by the changes.

And Councillor James Airey said that the plans would 'add even more chaos' into what was 'now a dreadful situation in Kendal'.

"It adds to the chaos and the feeling that Kendal is now actually moving into an anti-car territory without any positive solutions for people," he said.

Concerns were also raised over the enforcement of those hours.

The idea for the order has come from the Kendal Place Project in order to 'improve and open up the Market Place area'.

"This is with the aim of giving pedestrians greater freedom of movement away from vehicles," Victoria Upton, traffic management engineer for CCC explained. "Particularly in the core hours of 11am-4pm on Market Place and Finkle Street."

Deputy leader of the Council Ian Stewart said that he thought the council was 'up to speed' with enforcement and the scheme would 'add to capacity'.

"I'm supportive of this experimental order and I look forward to seeing that it is successful which I fully anticipate it to be," he said.

Ms Upton reiterated that it was an experimental order initially in place for six months in order for consultation, monitoring and feedback to take place.

She said that a disability impact statement had been undertaken but nothing extensive had yet be done. All statutory consultees would be consulted over the six months and they would be as 'inclusive' as possible.

She also added that it would be possible to consider only removing the Market Place spaces for the course of the experimental order.

Committee members voted for the decision to be deferred, pending consultation with the disability groups and a reconsideration about which spaces would be removed.