Reaction to the plans to scrap Cumbria’s six district authorities and the county council have been widely welcomed by the county’s political leaders.
The Government has announced that the authorities will be replaced by two new councils – one for the East and one for the West.
The West council will cover the area currently serviced by Allerdale, Copeland and Carlisle councils while the East will look after the district covered by Eden, South Lakeland and Barrow authorities.
All the councils put forward their proposals for the new-look local government set-up and while the majority have welcomed the move, Barrow and South Lakeland leaders in a joint statement said they were disappointed with the decision as their proposal – with next door Lancaster council – was ‘more ambitious’ than the east-west split.
Four of the county’s Conservative MPs have also come out in favour of the plans but Penrith and the Border’s Neil Hudson said he was disappointed, as did Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron.
Both MPs questioned the Government’s thinking behind pushing ahead with reorganisation while the country was still in the middle of a pandemic.
Our colleagues at Lake District Radio spoke to Mike Johnson, leader of Allerdale council about the reorganisation.
You can listen to the interview below.
Read more about the plans here
Read how the move has been welcomed by the majority of county leaders here
Read what South Cumbria’s council leaders think about the plans here.
Plans welcomed by Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership – read Lord Inglewood’s statement here.
- Cumbria Crack is working with Lake District Radio to bring you even more news. Lake District Radio broadcasts all day, every day to listeners in Cumbria and around world from studios in Kendal and Windermere. You can listen online at www.lakedistrictradio.org, download the LDR app to your phone, or by saying “Alexa – play Lake District Radio”.
