A town hall revamp to encourage members of the public through its doors and improve disabled access could strip the public purse of £131,000. South Lakeland District Council's plans to "improve and modernise" Kendal Town Hall comes at a time when the
A NEW pub planned for Morecambe by the national Wetherspoons chain is to be called The Eric Bartholomew the real name of the resort's comic legend, Eric Morecambe . A company spokesman said the chain liked to link its pub names to the history of an area
THE average South Lakeland resident is among the oldest in the North West aged 43 - according to the 2001 Census. Eden is revealed as the most sparsely populated district of England, with the highest proportion of white people 99.6 per cent and the third
A SOUTH Lakeland man had a life-changing decision to make last night. And the question on the lips of millions of television viewers was: "Will he, or won't he?" Windermere's Jacob Kindred, 25, could either be hitched or ditched this morning after his
POLICE chiefs want to raise their council tax share by nearly a third in the coming year to get more bobbies on the beat and tackle crime in the community, reports Beth Broomby. The inflation-busting increase comes on the back of other double-figure claims
AN ASYLUM seeker is facing possible deportation after admitting an £11,000 benefits fraud at post offices across Cumbria and in other parts of the North West of England. The prosecution is to ask a judge at Carlisle Crown Court to recommend that Lithoke
SOUTH Lakeland residents hit the streets of London this week in protest against images of an artist eating a dead baby, reports Beth Broomby. The demonstration at Channel 4's Horseferry Road premises on Sunday included around 50 protesters from London
A human chain, dispatches of bags of rice and tags tied to railings will be the tools of peaceful demonstration across South Lakeland as people take part in a worldwide day of action over war in Iraq. As thousands are expected to converge in anti-war
IN the span of five years, most bands burn out and end. Massive Attack, however, chose to spend the years 1998-2003 sporadically working on their new offering 100th Window'. Now reduced to a one man outfit, Massive Attack somehow manages to maintain the
COULD this be the thin end of the wedge in police cuts? The life-size cardboard model (pictured right), not so much the Bill but a billboard, complete with back view, was seen guarding the aisles at Morrisons supermarket in Kendal. Staff at the store
SIR, As an Independent South Lakeland District Councillor, I wholeheartedly agree that in local councils (parish/town, district and county) party politics get in the way of decisions that should be based exclusively on what is best for our area (Letters
SIR, The so-called consultation exercise carried out by Cumbria County Council on the acceptable degree of further degradation of the already inadequate level of road maintenance against a scale of proposed increases in council tax was a masterpiece of
THERE are many reasons to celebrate the securing of future publication of Alfred Wainwright's legendary walking books, and the printing of them back in Kendal. Anyone who enjoys the simple pleasure of walking the Fells or the Dales, or reading about doing
KENDAL stand-off Mike Scott turned from a sinner to a saint as he put over the vital drop-goal in the penultimate minute to snatch the narrowest of victories for Kendal and keep alive their hopes of avoiding the drop. Scott had left Kendal a man short
SEDGLEY Park visit for a rearranged home match this Saturday and the fourth-placed outfit will provide a rigorous examination of Kendal's new-found confidence, writes Richard Daniels. Kendal only scraped through their crucial battle with Newbury last
Moves to get rid of 21 British Telecom phoneboxes from Kendal have sparked fears among town councillors. They are concerned the lack of kiosks could leave some people who did not have private telephones or mobiles without a line of communication. They
CITIZENS Advice Bureaux experts are aiming to help farmers facing hardship after the foot-and-mouth crisis by taking assistance to them. Funding from the Cumbria Community Recovery Fund and the Northern Rock Foundation is paying for initiatives including
TRADERS have thrown their support behind a new town centre manager being appointed for Kendal. The post has been vacant since December following Maria Appleton's resignation after about five years in the role. South Lakeland District Council's economic
POLICE are making inquiries to establish the identity of a man whose body was found by a member of the public in Derwentwater, near Keswick, on Wednesday morning. The grim discovery was made near to Crow Park and a spokesman for Cumbria Constabulary said
Moves to increase the district council's share of the Council Tax by nearly 11 per cent came a step closer to completion this week. Members of South Lakeland District Council's ruling cabinet backed a recommendation for a 10.8 per cent hike in Council
HAVING fun at South Lakeland District Council's parks will be more expensive from April 1. The cost of playing tennis, bowls or partaking a round of crazy golf at council parks in Ambleside, Bowness and Grange-over-Sands will go up by 20p on average.
THE future publication of guidebooks by the legendary fell-walking chronicler Alfred Wainwright has been saved. In a linked move, the printing of them is returning to Kendal after a gap of ten years, securing local jobs and creating new ones. The joint
A clearer vision has emerged of radical plans to create a multi-million pound new "Gateway to the Lakes". Council leaders hope plans to transform land off junction 36 into an interactive visitor, business and agricultural centre could give farming a much-needed
A GLOBAL PHARMACEUTICAL company which this week announced profits of £5.5 billion for 2002 is to make the first round of redundancies at its Ulverston factory in April. GlaxoSmithKline announced in September last year that it was going to make 400 redundancies
SIR, Thank you so much for the wonderful appeal in The Westmorland Gazette on behalf of our charity Homes For Street Children. The response has been wonderful and so varied from your readers, some just small donations included in letters wishing us good
SIR, I have read your newspaper correspondence on the issue of closing public toilets with dismay and disbelief for months now. It cannot be happening. How dare South Lakeland District Council put locals, travellers and visitors in the embarrassing position
Sir, I see that Cumbria County Council has totally ignored the views of the people of Cumbria and is still determined to increase the council tax by an extortionate amount. The deputy leader, Mike Ash, has even been quoted as saying: "If you want a Mickey
SIR, Like Norman Park of the Keep Windermere Alive Association, I am delighted that the Audit Commission has revealed what we have all been saying for years - the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) does not effectively engage with local residents
KIRKBY had to face another stern test in league leaders Oldham and it was the organisation and fitness which proved to be the difference. Kirkby, with Storey back at his preferred position of scrum-half, started brightly, forcing Oldham back with clever
Final score was Windermere 3 - St Benedict's 10. TAKING the field short of five regular first-team forwards and also having to reshuffle their back line, Windermere will be relieved this was not a league match. St Benedict's from Whitehaven, who had held
If Mint Bridge had been a golf course on Saturday, there would have been temporary greens, tees on mats and preferred lies. The vital encounter with Newbury was played in the heaviest winter conditions experienced this year, and this dictated the character
PHIL Skillern, an ex Scottish Exiles player, is added to the Kendal squad to face Sedgley Park at Mint Bridge on Saturday. The match, which was postponed on January 11 because of frost, kicks off at 2pm to allow spectators to avoid clashing with the England
LAKES parish councillors are writing to British Telecom bosses in a plea to save nearly half of the ten Ambleside phoneboxes earmarked for closure. The letter will ask BT to reconsider its plans for four of the village kiosks on Greenbank Road, Kirkfield
British Telecom has been criticised for its plan to ask schoolchildren to take part in a new competition to cut vandalism at payphones just weeks after announcing it intended to remove 70 kiosks from across the area. In January, it was confirmed that
PROTECTING and preserving the environment is now a cause celebre among agricultural policy makers in Britain as well as in Europe. Breaking the link between production and farm payments in pursuit of that goal now looks a certainty since both Sir Don
BUSINESSES are being urged to give financial backing to a bid to turn Kendal into a powerhouse for budding entrepreneurs. Kirkbie Kendal School wants to secure business and enterprise college status from the government, unlocking hundreds of thousands
A NEW business venture is aiming to drum up more business in South Lakeland by targeting the lucrative corporate events, conference and training market. Conference business agency CBA is the brainchild of Sara Young, who harnessed her sales and organisational
PLANS for 11 affordable apartments off Lickbarrow Close, Windermere, have been rejected by Lake District planners. The plans by Impact Housing Association for flats for locals on an unkempt area of rough grassland outside the built-up area of Windermere
ARCHEOLOGISTS visited Kendal this week to oversee excavation work on Westmorland Gazette land in the hope of making a significant medieval find. Experts from the Lancaster-based Oxford Archaeology North are monitoring the demolition of the newspaper's
MAJOR plans to breathe new life into Backbarrow's historic ironworks have almost cleared their final hurdle. Lake District planners have given their backing to the multi-million pound project, subject to their solicitor checking some legal paperwork after
GOVERNMENT officers have ticked off Cumbria County Council for failing to push road improvement schemes through on time. Government Office North West director of competitiveness and infrastructure David Higham said a record of "poor scheme delivery" in
