Senior councillors say they wanted to see controversial plans to cut health services referred to the Secretary of State.

Cumbria County Council leader Stewart Young and Beth Furneaux, cabinet member for health, are concerned that the scrutiny committee backtracked on two key decisions after several members left early.

Mr Young said there is still a possibility it could be re-run if an investigation finds proper procedure was not followed.

Cumbria Health Scrutiny Committee met last week to decide whether to call in the decisions made by NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). But despite originally voting to refer maternity, paediatrics and community hospitals, the meeting saw councillors backtrack on the last two.

Some of those who left before the end have since said they would have stayed and influenced the final vote had the process been properly explained to them.

The News & Star also revealed that the decision did not follow usual procedure and was rushed through ahead of the upcoming local elections to avoid delay.

Mr Young said: "I would have liked to have seen all of the proposals referred because I had concerns about all of them. Given the outcome of the scrutiny committee, we are reviewing the conduct of the meeting to see whether it was all carried out properly or whether there are any grounds for re-running it."

He added: "We also need to understand what changes the CCG offered that persuaded some members of the panel to change their minds."

Ms Furneaux added: "I am still reeling. The whole lot should have been sent to Secretary of State.

"The now accepted proposals make no sense and will hinder progress with communities on the way forward for community hospitals."