Cumbria Cat, our columnist at large, has been taking a break. We thought he’d moved in with someone else with better cat food, but he returns today….
I might only be a cat, but that puts me in prime position to smell a rat, and that rat smell is coming from Cumberland Council.
On November 26 the Local Government Boundary Commission launched a consultation on new boundaries for council wards in Cumberland.
This announcement also revealed that the council has already decided that the current 46 councillors isn’t enough as the poor things are overworked sitting on all those committees, and they have already agreed, apparently, to increase the number of councillors to 55.
Considering that they agreed to increase the councillor’s allowance by 20% in 2023 to a minimum of £14,500, that will add a minimum of £130,000 to the budget for councillors even before counting any expenses they might claim.
And, following hard on the heels of this announcement, on November 28, an announcement that Cumberland Council, together with Westmorland and Furness Council, have expressed an interest in striking a devolution deal that would create a single unitary authority for the whole of Cumbria.
This comes less than three years since the previous system of local government across Cumbria was changed from a county council and six local councils, to what we have today.
Have they decided, already, that the two-council system adopted from 2023, is no longer working?
Will they put more meat on the bones of Enterprising Cumbria – an organisation set up to attract inward investment and replacing Cumbria Local Enterprise partnership?
Do they really think the people of Cumbria have the appetite for change after so short a period of time?
One wonders what is going to be announced next week? Watch this space and bait the rat…..
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, now, 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.
