Cumbria Unitarisation

Residents and businesses in Cumbria are currently served by a two-tier system of local government. The County Council is responsible for services such as adults’and children’s social care, maintaining roads, libraries and waste disposal, and the District and Borough Councils are responsible for service such as rubbish collection, housing and planning and environmental health.

The seven councils in Cumbria have been developing ideas about restructuring local government for some time and requested an invitation from the Secretary of State to submit proposals for unitary local government–a single tier of local government delivering all of the local government services for the area. On 9 October 2020 the Secretary of State invited the seven Cumbria councils to submit locally led proposals for unitary local government.

The Secretary of State received four proposals from councils in Cumbria:

Allerdale Borough Council and Copeland Borough Council submitted a joint proposal for two unitary councils covering the whole of the area of the administrative county of Cumbria: one unitary council in the West comprising the current districts of Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland; and one in the East comprising the current districts of Barrow, Eden and South Lakeland.
Barrow Borough Council and South Lakeland District Council submitted a joint proposal for two unitary councils covering the whole of the area of the administrative county of Cumbria and the administrative district area of Lancaster City within Lancashire County: one unitary council (“The Bay”) comprising the current districts of Barrow, Lancaster City(in Lancashire) and South Lakeland; and one comprising the current districts of Allerdale, Carlisle, Copeland and Eden districts in “North Cumbria”.
Carlisle City Council and Eden District Council submitted a joint proposal for two unitary councils covering the whole of the area of the administrative county of Cumbria: one unitary council in the north comprising the current districts of Allerdale, Carlisle and Eden; and one in the south comprising the current districts of Barrow, Copeland and South Lakeland in the south.
Cumbria County Council submitted proposal for a single unitary council for the whole of the area of the administrative county of Cumbria County.

Cumbria proposals https://consult.communities.gov.uk/governance-reform-and-democracy/cumbria

The above link will take you to the proposals via the Departments online consultation platform which you can use to respond.

The links below will take you directly to the proposals:

Allerdale link to proposal for two unitary councils from Allerdale and Copeland Borough Councils
Copeland link to proposal for two unitary councils from Allerdale and Copeland Borough Councils
Barrow link to proposal for two unitary councils from Barrow Borough and South Lakeland District Councils
South Lakeland Council link to proposal for two unitary councils from Barrow Borough and South Lakeland District Councils
Carlisle link to proposal for two unitary councils from Carlisle City and Eden District Councils
Eden link to proposal for two unitary councils from Carlisle City and Eden District Councils
Link to proposal for one unitary council from Cumbria County Council

Views are welcome from all those interested in these proposals, including local residents, town and parish councils, businesses and the voluntary sector. Closing date for comments 19 April 2021.