LOCAL Liberal Democrat Tim Farron has defended his latest leaflet against claims it is misleading the public.

Mr Farron, who is the party's spokesman for Westmorland and Lonsdale, has produced a pamphlet which urges people to back the campaign to oppose the closure of Kendal's Helme Chase Maternity Unit.

But the publication has outraged Conservative South Lakeland district councillor Barclay Stainton, who claims the leaflet is "terribly misleading".

Staff at the maternity unit have also received complaints about it.

Coun Stainton is angry because he feels that the tear-off coupon imploring people to Save Helme Chase and help "retain this vital local service" is confusingly close to a plea for cash donations to the Liberal Democrat party which says "Your help could make the difference".

"I don't mind people putting out political leaflets - every party does that, but pulling a fast one like this is just too close to the nerve really," Coun Stainton told the Gazette.

"If any elderly person got that and thought 'I was born at Helme Chase, I would love to support it,' they would just assume their money was going towards that.

"It's the fact that the request for money and the Helme Chase petition are right next to each other.

It should have been stated clearly that this money was going to the Liberal Democrat campaign," he added.

But Mr Farron insists that it was standard practice to use a single coupon on political leaflets.

"I'm surprised it's even an issue," he said.

"It is quite clear that there are two completely different questions.

"I think it is unimaginable to think that anyone would send in money mistakenly.

It has never happened yet and I can't envisage a situation when it would."

He said that he has had a "phenomenal" response from people backing the Helme Chase petition and that, as with every piece of literature he put out, he had received a "standard" amount of money back.

Mr Farron added that Coun Stainton's call to donate any money raised as a result of the leaflet to the maternity unit was a "mischievous comment" and that the Liberal Democrats had already invested a "sizeable" sum of money into the campaign to save Helme Chase.

Audrey Hawkes, spokeswoman for the Royal College of Midwives at Helme Chase, said that while any support for Helme Chase was welcome, midwives at the unit didn't want to be seen to be connected with any political party, and that they had not been approached or involved in the production of the leaflet.