The Westmorland Gazette has been praised during a debate in Parliament for its use of the Freedom of Information Act.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron quoted two examples from the newspaper to support his criticism of the Government’s plans to amend the Act, which he says will inevitably result in more and more requests being turned down.

In his speech Mr Farron praised The Westmorland Gazette as a “campaigning local newspaper”.

He said: “In my constituency we have a good, campaigning local newspaper, the Westmorland Gazette, which is pretty famous.

“It made a freedom of information request to the local police authority about the impact of new speed cameras.

“Whatever one’s view about the impact and usefulness of speed cameras, it was only by using the Act that the newspaper discovered that new speed cameras had led to a 753 per cent increase in the number of speeding tickets. That valuable information is of use and interest to the public….”

He added that mystery relating to the loss of the chief officer of the Lake District national park had also been tackled by the paper.

He said: “Various issues were not revealed at that point, but they all related to the good and proper use of public money.

“They would not have been revealed at all had the newspaper not been able to use the Freedom of Information Act.

“I am sure that the authority did not want to answer the newspaper’s irksome and difficult questions and that it would have taken every opportunity not to do so, had it been able to. However, the proposed changes could present authorities with that opportunity in the future.”

The debate was brought by Islwyn MP Don Touhig and the arguments will be put forward before the consultation on plans to amend the Freedom of Information Act regulations ends on March 8.