This week the draft Cumbria (Structural Changes) Order 2022 was laid before Parliament. This is the next step in creating two unitary councils for Cumbria, streamlining local government, reducing complications and duplication, and delivering savings for council taxpayers. This will deliver real change to the way local services are delivered and is something I have campaigned for over a number of years.
I have been around the periphery of local politics for well over a decade, and was Deputy Leader of Allerdale Borough Council prior to my election to Westminster. Throughout that time, two things were clear to me - local government in Cumbria needed significant reform, and that people long for a sense of identity that our current structure failed to provide. Indeed many think we lost something in 1974 when we lost Cumberland to the much larger, and more distant, Cumbria County Council. As we now move towards two unitary authorities – named ‘Cumberland’ and ‘Westmorland and Furness’, we now see both of those issues being addressed.
Alongside Trudy Harrison, Mike Johnson as Leader of Allerdale Borough Council and Mike Starkie as Mayor of Copeland, I fought hard both locally and in Westminster for two unitary authorities along the lines that we see drawn in the order, retaining those local identities, keeping together the main travel to work areas and not drawing another set of boundaries that make no sense.
Last year I engaged with constituents regarding the name of the new western unitary that will encompass our Workington constituency. Following this engagement, I began a campaign to adopt Cumberland as the name for this authority. The petition that I set up was signed by thousands of constituents, demonstrating their support, and even garnered the support of the previous secretary of state. I’m delighted that the name ‘Cumberland’ has been adopted by Government.
Disappointingly, Labour still refuse to acknowledge that our present two tier system of local government is not working for my constituents, or residents throughout our county. Propped up by the Lib Dems, Labour have appealed their failed judicial review against unitary authorities in our county. This latest waste of hundreds of thousands of pounds come on the back of costs awarded against them to the district councils in their first attempt to stop the process, and hot on the heels of the £25m they wasted in their disastrous attempts to sue Amey – each time they were warned, and each time they continued. After all, it’s not their money is it?....
Even at the eleventh hour, Labour and the Lib Dems continue to waste your hard earned council tax. Running Cumbria County Council with only 26% of your vote, Labour’s attitude towards democracy, accountability and spending your hard earned council tax on their pet political projects is shameful and undemocratic.
Cumberland isn’t just a name. It isn’t just a new council. It’s a chance to reset. The new Cumberland unitary authority creates an opportunity for us to throw out the old and renew the opportunities we have to prosper.
I am always amazed at those who seek to disparage local government reform as somehow harking back to pre-1974 days. They fail to see the bigger picture, as they do so often. To them progress is always moving in the same direction, regardless of how it might be failing residents. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, sometimes progress means turning back to the right road - and he who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
