CUMBRIA County Council has been criticised by the Local Government Ombudsman for "maladministration" and "flawed and biased" public consultation after residents in Kendal complained about a traffic-calming scheme in their neighbourhood.

Twenty speed humps were installed on Vicarage Drive and Westwood Avenue, Kendal, in 2001 after residents complained about speeding in the area close to Vicarage Park Primary School.

CCC consultations apparently found strong support for a 20mph speed limit on the roads and accompanying traffic calming measures.

Trouble started after the £50,000 scheme was installed when the speed humps were found to be too high.

There were complaints from some drivers that some humps were so high they were virtually impassable in icy conditions and others said they made bus travel extremely uncomfortable.

In fact, several were above the maximum legal height of 100 millimetres and all were bigger than the 75mm "maximum" suggested in the public consultation.

To make matters worse, when the scheme was publicised in the local Press, as required by law, the advert described humps between "75mm and 100mm", not the maximum 75mm.

Opponents seized on these issues and took the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman.

After an investigation, the Ombudsman concluded that CCC "undertook an inadequate initial consul-tation," and "undertook a second consultation (after installation of the scheme)

in a flawed and biased manner."

Moreover, the Ombuds-man found that CCC agents, Capita, had "provided inaccurate information" to members of the South Lakes area committee making decisions about the scheme by failing to mention problems with the height of the humps.

The Ombudsman decided that the actions of the council "constituted maladministration which caused an injustice as the situation has resulted in the installation of road humps higher than recommended by the Department of Transport and likely to cause discomfort and difficulties for road users."

The remedy suggested by the Ombudsman was that the height of speed humps should be adjusted.

CCC said an area around each hump would now be built up to effectively reduce the height of the humps themselves. Capita will pay for the work.

Rob and Wendy Kirkham, who live on Hillswood Avenue, just off Vicarage Drive, have been at the forefront of some residents' efforts to force the council to look again at the scheme.

Mr Kirkham, who estimates he has to drive over 18,000 speed bumps a year, said: "There was never any problem with the 20mph speed limit and there was never any problem with the humps around the school but not all the way up the road. Our point is that the scheme was too excessive and we wanted some of the bumps removed there are just too many."

He said campaigners were pleased with the Ombudsman's findings and hoped CCC would take the opportunity to review the whole scheme, with a view to removing some speed humps, and hoped CCC, Capita and Cumbria Contract Services would learn lessons from the Vicarage Park experience.

Martyn Jowett, CCC councillor for Vicarage Park, said he and the South Lakes local committee had based their decisions on what they were being told by officers that there was no problem with the height of the speed humps installed.

Mr Jowett said he now hoped to bring the matter back to the local committee where members might indeed consider scrapping some of the Vicarage Park speed humps.