Councillors who claimed misunderstanding led them to leave a crunch health meeting before a final vote have again defended themselves, after calls for a re-run were ruled out.

It follows an investigation into the fiasco that saw members of the Cumbria Health Scrutiny Committee change their minds on key decisions after four members left before the end.

Three of them - Allerdale's Carni McCarron-Holmes, Copeland's Raymond gill and South Lakes' Jim Bland - later said they were confused and would have stayed for the final vote if it had been clear.

But following an investigation Cumbria County Council's chief executive, Katherine Fairclough, concluded the process was explained to members on at least four separate occasions.

The special meeting was held in Carlisle on March 22 to discuss NHS plans to cut maternity and paediatrics services in Whitehaven and close community hospital beds in Maryport, Wigton and Alston.

It initially saw councillors vote to refer all three matters to the Secretary of State, but later change their mind on the last two. Before the final vote was cast, the meeting was adjourned for mitigation talks with health bosses, to resume later. At this point, four councillors went home, leaving seven to make the final decision.

The investigation concluded those councillors should have understood the process as it was set out in the public papers, in a briefing note given to all members, explained in the pre-meeting and again during the public part of the meeting.

But Mrs McCarron-Holmes insists she would have stayed and voted to refer all matters had it been made clear.

"I left that meeting feeling quite jubilant, believing the vote had gone through. I wasn't the only one," she said. "I want to reiterate here and now that I believe the decision not to refer all three was wrong in my view."

She added that she missed most of the pre-meeting due to snowy conditions on the drive from Maryport and insists the process was not explained.


Raymond Gill Mr Gill said it wasn't made clear to him, despite being vice chairman of the committee and eligible to attend the mitigation talks. He said they were given a huge pile of paperwork to read that morning, and if it was in there he missed it.

"I believed the second meeting would take place at a later date, not later that day. I left the house at 8am and left the meeting at 4.30pm. I would have stayed longer if I'd known. It certainly wasn't clear to me," he explained.

County Council leader Stewart Young said that as the investigation found due process was followed, there were no grounds for a re-run.

"The whole situation has been unfortunate, but we've got to have grounds. I understand people are feeling frustrated, but you can't just re-run a meeting because you don't like the outcome.

"At the end of the day those councillors are accountable for their actions," he added.