CHILDREN at Kendal's Brewery Pre-School will be able to use their play equipment again after councillors voted not to take action to remove it.

Instead, members of South Lakeland District Council's control development committee voted to put up a trellis to protect neighbours' privacy.

Committee members visited the site after a complaint that youngsters could see into next-door gardens.

They judged that it "could be seen as unneighbourly".

There has been a playground behind the arts centre, next to Haygarth Court, for at least ten years but the problem arose after it was raised on a decking platform.

Organisers agreed not to use it until matters were resolved, removing the need for enforcement action.

Some 20 mothers and children protested outside Kendal Town Hall before the meeting.

Organiser Julie Mayfield said: "The children are too busy playing to be interested in what's going on over a garden wall."

At the meeting, Coun Malcolm Alston described the affair as "very, very sad".

"With a bit of consultation a lot of money could have been saved," he said.

But Coun John Studholme said he "did not think for one minute Brewery managers thought they need planning permission - it's been there for years."

"It just depends on the person living there," said Coun Les Hadwin.

"I would enjoy seeing the children and so would my wife."