The organisation created to promote Cumbria’s economic growth has rejected claims that it is not performing well enough.

An independent panel which was set up to oversee the work of the county’s Local Enterprise Partnership says that it has proved to be ineffective and is being wrongly dominated by Cumbria County Council.

But Cumbria LEP director Graham Haywood said: "The view from the Cumbria area lead and deputy area lead from BEIS, the Government department responsible for LEPs, was that overall the partnership is performing fairly well."

He added that a separate independent review, commissioned and paid for by the partnership, concluded that the LEP was performing "relatively well while recognising the need to address some major challenges".

He said: "The independent report also states that Cumbria LEP has done everything that was required by Government and had strong support from the county council in its accountable body role.

"It also says the chairman was very good at understanding Government requirements of partnership working and was highly respected for the integrity he brought."

But a report from the Cumbria LEP Scrutiny Panel has 19 recommendations to improve the running of the organisation, including bringing two additional private sector members on to the board and appointing a new chairman, also from a business background.

The panel also called for an interim chairman to oversee initial changes.

Mr Haywood said: "A lot of the recommendations made in the review and by the scrutiny panel are either already under way or being considered by the board.

"For example, the recruitment of a new chairman and a permanent chief executive, increasing private sector representation on the board and a review of the Strategic Economic Plan to create a Cumbria Local Industrial Strategy through to 2030.

"BEIS recently said ‘in broad terms, when ranked against other LEPs, Cumbria is probably performing in the middle of all LEPs, which given the fact that some can call on 100 to 200 staff, was a considerable achievement. Cumbria LEP has fewer than 20 staff."

Carlisle’s MP John Stevenson supported a call from the scrutiny panel that the organisation’s chairman George Beveridge should immediately resign.

Mr Beveridge announced late last year that he was stepping down from the chairman role and on January 19 the board unanimously voted in favour of Mr Beveridge remaining in post until a new chairman was recruited.

Mr Haywood added: "The LEP has invested over £60m of government Growth Deal funding in large scale projects to help grow the local economy across the county.

"Specifically in Carlisle, investment includes £4.95m at Carlisle Airport to enable the start of passenger flights, over £780,000 in new facilities at the University of Cumbria and £900,000 in the advanced manufacturing centre at Carlisle College, as well as the creation of the enterprise zone at Kingmoor Park in Carlisle.

"Local businesses have also been awarded over £4m of grants to help them grow and create jobs."

He said the LEP's investment programmes were set to create more than 4,300 jobs, 4,200 training places for local people and attract an additional £53m in private and public sector investment to the county.