Kendal Civic Society has asked planners to give shopkeepers guidance on good design for shutters to protect their windows from vandals.

Speaking at the society's annual meeting, president Peter Crewdson said he believed traders in Kendal's main street had "terrible trouble" insuring their windows against breakage.

Chairman Dr John Satchell said that raised the issue of planning policy on shutters for shops.

"We've always been opposed to anything that makes a street look tatty and down-at-heel but there are situations when it is

necessary for people to protect their plate-glass windows," he said.

"We've asked South Lakeland District Council to produce a leaflet giving guidelines for good design for shutters.

Not all shutters are as ugly as others; there are one or two about that are really quite acceptable.

If we've got to have shutters, let's have the best available."

South Lakeland's economy and development manager Richard Greenwood said a leaflet would be produced in future,

reported Dr Satchell.

Meanwhile, the cost of vandalism to Kendal Civic Society should be listed separately in the yearly accounts, suggested a member, after hearing that vandalism to the engraved panoramic plaque at Bowling Fell and the Millennium woodland at Castle Hill had cost thousands of pounds.

Vandals sprayed the Bowling Fell plaque with graffiti, said Dr Satchell, but district council workers were "there in no time" to clean it up, and the plaque was "as good as new".

Kendal Civic Society has four new plaques ready to go up at historic sites around the town - Nether Bridge, the former Woolpack Inn - now Kentucky Fried Chicken - Blind Beck House and artist George Romney's house on Milnthorpe Road.

Future locations for plaques could include the Brewery Arts Centre and Change Bridge, on the canal.

The society would also like to commemorate the Mary Wakefield music festival with an illustrated plaque, and has found a firm in Staveley which is able to engrave plaques with artwork.

The Change Bridge plaque could feature a picture of the bridge with a barge passing beneath it and a horse walking over it.

l Concerns about the condition of an historic lime kiln at Greenside have led Kendal Civic Society to approach the

Industrial History Society to see if it can help to keep the kiln in good repair.

Civic society secretary Patricia Hovey said the early 19th century kiln was extremely important to Kendal's history and was quite well preserved, but plant roots were encroaching and threatened to split the masonry.