Apart from being thought of a some sort of Beatrix Potter theme park or a nice, out of the way place to have a nuclear industry where the locals can be bought for 20 pieces of silver, how does this county and this region compare with the rest of the England?
Living standards are generally higher the further south and east you go. Yes, house prices go up but so do wages as these areas have access to better paid, higher value jobs and people live longer and more fulfilled lives with more opportunities for cultural stimulation.
The further south and east and the more opportunities for education and more facilities for health. Just compare the health inequality between Blackpool and Brighton. Or look at those pockets of innovation and ideas – is it any wonder that the COVID vaccine was developed in and around Oxford and Cambridge, not Oldham and Carlisle?
Travel is generally easier which is as it should be with the gazillions spent on CrossRail and the London to Birmingham HS2. Third runway for Heathrow? Of course. How much? Not a problem.
And how many communities in the north that not that many years ago were built around coal and iron and steel are now wastelands of lost hope?
Now, don’t get me wrong. In Cumbria there are local entrepreneurs who are bucking the trend as we move from the heavy industries of the last century to the technology driven jobs of today. We have access to the great outdoors and some fine cultural activities – Theatre by the Lake, Brewery Arts Centre being two example which I hope are replicated by a revitalised Sands Centre in Carlisle if they can look beyond ‘B’ list comedians.
There has already been a start of sorts but has the money so far invested in Cumbria been directed towards the clear inequalities we see every day?
The millions being sunk into Carlisle and the Gateway will see a new campus for the University of Cumbria. Will that make up for the loss of Debenhams? Will it transform the lives of the residents of Harraby or Botcherby or will it simply provide bragging rights for the vice chancellor and local bigwigs?
£25 million from the Towns Fund to Barrow-in-Furness. Is creating ‘event spaces’ or green transport (cycle routes, no doubt) really going to change the lives of the residents for the better or would the money be better spent further building on the success of BAE and marine technologies?
£200,000 to refurbish Maryport Town Hall? An expensive paint job that will do little to change the lives of residents.
The £23m already earmarked for Workington might…. MIGHT … be a step in the right direction but it depends on how this is taken forward by the new Cumberland Council which is going to headquartered in Carlisle, which may be problematical in the medium term.
Yes, the Port of Workington is key to developing the region but is there really a need for a ‘multi-purpose sports Vvllage’ when, despite much hard work and personal investment by owners, directors and volunteers, professional and semi-professional sports in the area are on their knees?
Yes, the Ramsay Brow/Washington Street needs to be sorted but will spending loads of money on ‘public realm and public spaces’ in and around the town centre reap any real benefits until the mindset and culture of residents changes where these will be cherished and used?
At a time when the new Government is likely to start ripping spending plans to bits and cancelling or postponing urgent infrastructure projects – what’s the odds on the Carlisle Southern Bypass surviving the cull? – will the piecemeal spending on local projects show benefits if the larger projects within the county and the wider region are pulled? If we don’t deal with the larger infrastructure issues – duelling the A66 and A590, or improving the Cumbrian Coast Railway – will the local spending have any real impact?
But levelling up is more than the sum of the monies being spent. It is about a change of mindset where Whitehaven, Whitley Bay and Wakefield are levelled up with Waltham Cross, Warminster and Witney. Where our children have the same opportunities without having to abandon their birth home for a university down south, never to return. Where they can access relevant training to get better paid jobs in a thriving post industrial job market, here, in Cumbria. Where the capital to finance innovation and growth is directed north and west.
Where life expectancy and, as importantly, the quality of lives is improved across great swathes of the forgotten lands.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, from 2023, will be back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world.
