There are 20 days until the new bosses take over and the county has two new councils – Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland – all because of the Government deciding to rationalise local authorities for the county.
And with 20 days to go there are already questions.
First question: imposing a 4.99 per cent council tax increase for 2023/4, Cumberland is already wasting money – why?
Cumbria Crack Towers received a letter this week with a nice, shiny, letterhead from Cumberland Council informing us that, as from April, our direct debits for our council tax will be going to Cumberland and not Allerdale.
Well, who knew??????
BTW: the council rises across Cumbria will differ as the new councils have to harmonise the amounts they charge across the legacy councils where there were some differences. For example, those in Allerdale will see a 6.7 per cent rise as, before, council tax per band was less in Allerdale than Carlisle or Copeland.
The letter did not provide any details of how much we will pay it was just an exercise in how to spend a not insignificant amount of money on what might be seen as a PR exercise.
Surely, when they send the council tax bills out later this month, as they have to, they could have added a line saying your money now comes to us and not Allerdale, or Copeland, or Carlisle City councils.
No doubt they will come up with some regulation that requires them to give x amount of weeks’ notice of a change to a direct debit although the rules on Direct Debits does say only 10 working days is required. As the amount being paid is changing, then the 10-day rule should be adhered to by the council in respect of the increases it has put in place.
Now, we might consider sending a Freedom of Information request to Cumberland to ask but a search of their new website for Freedom of Information came back blank.
So, still work to be done on the digital side. When the cat finds out how much they spent, you will be the first to know.
Maybe they are focusing on Twitter and Faceache – certainly they have started to post on these social media sites, including a post this week on the requirement to have photo ID to vote in elections in England this May.
Perhaps they need reminding that we had elections across Cumbria last year for the shadow authorities, so we won’t be required to tramp down to the polling stations this year.
Embarrassingly, Cumberland Council didn’t bag ‘cumberlandcouncil’ on Instagram and have had to use ‘cumberlandcouncil1’. Meanwhile Westmorland and Furness appear to be relying on the hashtag #westmorlandandfurnesscouncil on Insta.
And, in terms of Cumberland Council, isn’t it comforting to note that stalwarts of Allerdale, Mark Fryer as leader of the new council and Barbara Cannon, the portfolio holder for finance and assets, are front and centre of this new regime. Hopefully, old brooms do sweep clean.
However, in Westmorland and Furness, the new Liberal Democrat council has already started ticking boxes with a decision to charge double council tax for second homeowners. It’s a real step in the right direction to try and make homes in the Lake District more affordable for local people and those who work in the national park to support tourism and local industries.
Pity Cumberland councillors didn’t follow suit for homes in Keswick. Indeed, can we expect the new councils to go even further by ensuring that properties that are used for commercial renting, particularly those who have jumped on the Airbnb bandwagon and who’s properties are not available for locals, are charged the business/commercial rate for services such as waste collection? Another Freedom of Information request when they get around to accepting them.
Another question we might raise is how really consultative are consultations?
Both councils asked members of the public to ‘have their say’ on the council tax and the plans for the councils. Cumberland admitted that 57 per cent were not in favour of the 4.99 per cent rise in council tax and while Westmorland and Furness were a little more reticent about releasing a figure, their language suggests the same negative view on council tax rises.
Is this how it will be? Councillors wanting to hear the views of the people but ignoring it when it doesn’t suit?
Okay, we can ‘have our say’ on election day when we have the opportunity to vote on who our councillor will be, albeit, as the Cat has argued before, the names that appear on the ballot sheet are usually put there by party apparatchiks meeting in secret and making decisions based on who knows what.
Either have meaningful consultations or don’t, and if you want to have them be show some respect and be prepared to come out and say exactly why you have decided on a road contrary to that expressed by those who took the time and effort to respond.
The final question comes from the Honourable Member of Parliament for Workington who, in late January, a mere 18 months since the Government he supports announced its decision, asked for a review of the boundaries. Presumably, like Rip Van Winkle, he has been asleep.
At a time when we need to bed in the new councils and not have them looking over their shoulders wondering if the boundaries may change, his intervention is not helpful.
However, might there be an ulterior motive for why he asks now? Is he, like his fellow Cumbrian Tories so miffed that they lost Westmorland and Furness to the Liberal Democrats and Cumberland to labour that they want to bring forward a ‘Mayor of Cumbria’ to take away much of the new council’s powers?
In terms of local government, April 1 this year will be on a par with April 1 1974, when Cumbria came into existence and the Cat will be watching their every move.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, from April, 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.
