Concerns have been raised to council chiefs about openness and transparency in plans to reorganise how Cumbria is governed.
Cumberland Council will replace the district authorities for Carlisle, Allerdale and Copeland and Westmorland and Furness Council will replace Eden, Barrow and South Lakeland district councils from next year.
Cumbria County Council will also cease to exist.
But at a meeting of Carlisle City Council on Tuesday, Labour councillor Lucy Patrick said that some elected members and Cumbrian residents feel out of the loop.
“I think as members across the council we do need to have more understanding and awareness of how things are being taken forward,” she said.
Cllr Patrick asked the leader of the council to keep elected members informed on work to set up the two new unitary authorities.
“There’s a feeling amongst councillors that we don’t need to know what’s happening, we don’t need to know what changes are being made and we’re the elected representatives of our communities so that reflects back to the public and when residents ask us what’s happening and we’re not aware, there’s not much we can tell them.”
Carlisle City Council leader John Mallinson said members were not being intentionally kept in the dark. “The fact is there’s very little to share, we’re having very regular meetings and talking about all sorts of things, what we are not doing is making decisions.
“Any decisions we may make, would just be ignored by those who come after us, so we’re not doing that.
“Officers of all authorities are doing preparation work for decisions to be made further down the line.”
Deputy leader of the city council, Gareth Ellis, said: “We at every stage have brought local government reform to this council chamber to be discussed and decided here… that wasn’t a requirement, we did that because we felt it was important.”
Joint committees will soon be set up for both areas with representatives of the existing councils.
They will carry out more detailed preparation work for the new authorities. An election in May 2022 will see councillors appointed to the shadow authorities to shape the new councils for vesting on April 1 2023, when they become official.
Concerns that the public have not been properly consulted chime with the position of Cumbria County Council’s leadership.
The Labour and Lib Dem led county council launched a legal challenge in 2021 on the grounds that local government reform is unlawful.
Cumbria County Council leader Stewart Young believes that the decision to split Cumbria in two, was politically motivated, a bid from the Conservative Government to consolidate its power in the North West.
The county council has set up a website to explain the local government reform process: https://newcouncilsforcumbria.info/
