Comment – Page 39 – thecumbriachronic.co.uk

UPDATED: 17.3.2026

FOLLOWING TODAY’S DECISION, HERE’S A LOOK BACK TO WHAT THE CHRONIC WROTE LAST WEEK...

HIGH-ranking Lib Dem councillors make a rare flying visit to Barrovia next week to set the wrecking ball swinging on the Market Hall and Forum.

The Lib Dem-dictatorship running Wokemoreland & Farcical Council is pressing ahead – it’s as clear as balls on a bulldog.

The top Cabinet committee taking this decision is made up entirely of Lib Dem councillors from the likes of Kendal, Penrith, Arnside, Kirkby Stephen/Tebay and the North Lakes.

Fortunately for them, they have absolutely no emotional connection to The Forum or the Market Hall, so pressing the nuke button on Barrow’s town centre skyline shouldn’t prove too much of a guilt trip.

This undemocratic state-of-affairs is another rotten consequence of Local Government Disorganisation in Crumbria, which saw Barrow Borough Council killed off.

While we never thought we’d say this, elected Barrow Labour councillors should have been drafted onto Cabinet for a decision as big as this.

Next Tuesday, the Cabinet is going to give the nod for £93,000 to be spent first on design work, surveys and consents– the opening shot before the real money starts flying.

After that, the Council wants to sign off a demolition job estimated at £6.5 million.

Because flattening asbestos-hit town-centre buildings is never straightforward, that bill could rise by another £1.3 million – taking it to circa £7.9 million.

When the news broke last August, the cost was put at £5m!

The Council hopes to meet the Demolition bill by using part of the £11 million of former Conservative government Levelling Up money for Barrow that’s been gathering dust.

But the Council still needs Government permission to use that money for demolition.

The irony of using “levelling up” money to “knock something down” is not lost on the Chronic, although the Council seems content with it.

In anticipation that these decisions will not be met with universal approval in Barrow, the Council’s spin machine has already lurched into action.

A Press Release was sent round today to soften the ground ahead of Tuesday’s decision. Don’t rule out silken-tongued schmoozers from the Council picking up the phone to the Evening Snail to get impressionable young hacks on side.

Shadowy PR spinners working in the dark corridors of Kendal Town Hall, relabelled demolition as “enabling works!” – a vomit-inducing example of regen-speak.

The Press Release pushes demolition hard, wrapping it up in the glow of an unstoppable £200 million regeneration story.

In that version of reality, The Forum is not a much-loved civic asset that the town is losing, and the Market Hall is not something used by generations of townspeople.

They’re just old buildings in the way of what the elites say Barrow should look like.

Any Barrovians feeling aggrieved are reminded that this is what happens when you sit on your arse at Council election time…

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The Lib Dem Cabinet making next week’s decisions are below.

Top row (left-to-right): Cllr Archibald, Kendal; Cllr Bell, Penrith; Cllr Battye, Levens, Cllr Brook, Kendal, and Cllr Chaffey, Kent Estuary.

Bottom row (left-to-right): Cllr Derbyshire, Ullswater; Cllr Hughes, Burton-in-Kendal; Cllr Jarvis, Windermere; Cllr Murray, Kirkby Stephen & Tebay; and Cllr Thornton, Kendal.