The former leader of Allerdale has blasted the new executive amid claims they are “closing the council down” and keeping the public in the dark.

Labour leader Alan Smith made the comments just weeks after the new Independent leader Marion Fitzgerald pledged to run an “open and transparent” administration.

But hitting back, Mrs Fitzgerald said Mr Smith had been at the helm for “too long” and appeared to have forgotten the challenges involved in forming a new executive.

She also stressed that her team had been left with “several very important decisions to be taken in a very short space of time”, including the new multi-million stadium project.

Mrs Fitzgerald conceded that the executive was not experienced but that this did not mean members were lacking commitment.

Coun Smith has accused the executive of pushing meetings back and “taking credit” for his projects including the cycle path between Silloth and Allonby recently passed by the planning panel.

He said: “I was open and transparent when I was leader: my door was always open. Only one committee has met since April, the planning committee – that’s the first and only one we have had in eight weeks. If that’s change, I think it’s a change for the worse

“They are living on what we have left in place for them and taking credit for it. They were going to do away with the executive model but all they have done is jump into our warm seats.”

Mrs Fitzgerald questioned Mr Smith’s claims that his has been an open and transparent administration.

She also said members needed to be “fully prepared” for meetings and had been presented with information to which they had not been privy before.

She added: “We have seven new cabinet members.  All of us are hardworking people with numerous demands on our time.  Clearly there are likely to be some issues coordinating all of our diaries in the earliest days of the administration.”

Although the election took place on May 2, the current administration has only been in place since the council’s AGM on May 22, a total of three and a half a weeks.

Responding to claims from Mr Smith that a planned delay to the next meeting of the full council was “unconstitutional”, it has now been moved back to its original slot of July 17.

Mrs Fitzgerald said: “It is true that Coun Smith has challenged my pushing back the date of the July meeting of full council by one week to July 24.  I wanted to do this in order to honour a longstanding family commitment made many months before I knew I would be leader of the council.

“It seems the council’s constitution is open to interpretation on this point and I have therefore agreed to move the meeting back to its original date of July 17.  “This has come at great personal cost to my family and me, but I would never risk exposing the reputation of the Council by doing anything that could be interpreted as unconstitutional.”