Cumberland Council will create eight community panels to help guide it as it starts to govern the area.
The authority, which has replaced Allerdale, Copeland and Carlisle councils plus the county council, has agreed the new panels will decide on the priorities for their area and offer grants accordingly.
Each panel will be supported by a network panel made up of partners, residents, businesses and third sector organisations.
Lisa Brown, deputy leader for Cumberland Council who led on the work, said: “This is us leaving our first mark as Cumberland Council and it has been a real honour working on them.
“The community panels are what will make Cumberland different to anything that has gone before. We are starting these with an open mind, we made a commitment to make changes within our Cumberland Plan.
“We want to tackle entrenched issues. We want the community to know that they can come to us with their issues and we will listen to them. We will act. Life expectancy from birth in Cumberland is below the national average and we just cannot accept that.
“This change will take time, but we are fully committed to make these panels work, this is localism in action.”
The panels will have some funding and will be made up of the councillors from the wards within a particular area.
The role of the panels is to encourage community engagement and local decision making. Each panel will work with the community to develop a plan which can have sections bespoke to the communities within that particular area.
Council leader Mark Fryer added: “Our vision would be to eventually devolve more powers, and more spending powers, to these panels.
“I am proud of the work Lisa and officers have done on this, to do something new and realise our pledge to make changes in Cumberland.
“It is not often you get chance to start a fresh, to try something new. If something does not work, then we will change it. I am really excited to see them get up and running and hear the ideas that come from them.”
