A QUESTION has been chosen to be put to the people of Kendal in a parish poll over the closure of New Road common land to cars.

The people of Kendal will be asked to answer: “Do you want SLDC to change, create or amend a by-law to enable free parking on New Road common land?”

Voters will get the chance to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in a poll that is expected to take place after the local election occurs on May 3.

The deadline for the vote is 25 days after the referendum was demanded, which was on April 18.

Campaigners last week agreed upon four questions to pitch to SLDC’s returning officer for parish poll consideration.

The questions were decided upon at a parish meeting and were then assessed before one of them was approved.

The three questions proposed that were not accepted were:

l “Did you know that the new single span bridge due to be completed by Christmas 2018 is designed for cyclists but people will not be able to cycle off either side because both New Road and Gooseholme are common land and can’t be de-registered by Christmas time?”

l “Do you want an independent review into the closure of common land as you believe car parking issues are a major economic barrier in Kendal?”

l “Do you agree with the huge expenditure that SLDC is making without any public consultation?”

A previous meeting was held in March, but a poll was turned down by SLDC’s returning officer.

Campaigners took the opportunity at the latest meeting to voice their opposition to and concerns about the council’s actions on New Road.

Pam Flitcroft said: “I work for a charity and we can’t get any volunteers now because people who don’t earn any money don’t want to pay for parking. They can’t come in to work.

“I think what the council is doing is disgusting.”

Ian Kell asked council leader Cllr Giles Archibald if he believed what the council was doing in closing the car park was in the best interests of the people of Kendal.

Cllr Archibald replied: “We received a report telling us that parking on New Road was not safe.

“We were also informed that we were not insured for any incident that may happen on the common land.

“So I think we have acted in the interest of the people because we have done what we had to do.”

Andy Milliard, leader of the campaign, said that the group was speaking and acting on behalf of ‘the people of Kendal.’

He said 1,800 people had signed the campaign group’s petition without it being taken on the streets.

The meeting and some of the questions drew criticism from members of the public.

Paul Holdsworth said: “If you truly believe that you represent the voice of the majority of the people of Kendal, why can’t you get 2,000 signatures on a petition?

“Why can’t you pull yourselves together and do that? It is quite clear that the process we are going through now is an SLDC matter so why are we having a town council meeting about a district council matter?”

Resident Andy Edwards pointed out that cycling could be permitted on common land, and had been in similar places around the country, and suggested that the second question was therefore meaningless.

When asked by campaigner John Waddington, Cllr Archibald confirmed that Taylor’s fun fair had been consulted and would ‘definitely’ still take place on the land twice annually.