CONSERVATIVE calls for a high-profile conference to highlight the "crisis" facing industry in Cumbria have been rejected.
County Tory group leader Coun Rex Toft said large sections of manufacturing industry in Cumbria were under serious threat, with job losses hitting Kendal, Furness, Carlisle and West Cumbria.
Agriculture was in recession and tourism was being hit by high fuel prices which were driving people away from the Lakes, he claimed.
But his call for a conference was rejected by the Cumbria Sub-Regional Assembly, comprising public and private sector representatives, at a meeting on Friday.
Coun Toft, who wanted a senior government minister to be invited to the conference, said: "I feel angry that Labour county councillors will not even try to get a minister to attend a conference in the county so that we can impress on him the serious problems which we have, and seek his help in providing solutions."
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