Cumbria Unitarisation (including a proposal involving the City of Lancaster)

Closed 19 Apr 2021

Opened 22 Feb 2021

Contact

unitaryconsultation@communities.gov.uk

Overview

Residents and businesses in Cumbria are currently served by a two-tier system of local government. Cumbria County Council is responsible for services such as adult and children’s social care, maintaining roads and libraries, and the Councils – Allerdale Borough, Barrow Borough, Carlisle City, Copeland Borough, Eden District and South Lakeland District - are responsible for services 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:

The two councils - Allerdale and Copeland – jointly submitted a proposal for two unitary councils: West Cumbria comprising the area covered by Allerdale Borough, Carlisle City and Copeland Borough Councils  and East Cumbria comprising the area covered by Barrow Borough, Eden District and South Lakeland District Councils.

The two councils - Barrow and South Lakeland  – jointly submitted a proposal for two unitary councils: 'The Bay' comprising the area covered by Barrow Borough, South Lakeland District and Lancaster City Councils and North Cumbria comprising the area covered by Allerdale Borough, Carlisle City, Copeland Borough and Eden District Councils.

The two councils - Carlisle and Eden  – jointly submitted a proposal for two unitary councils: North Cumbria comprising the area covered by Allerdale Borough,  Carlisle City and Eden District Councils and South Cumbria comprising the area covered by Barrow Borough, Copeland Borough and South Lakeland District Councils.

Cumbria County Council submitted a proposal for a single unitary council for the area of Cumbria County.

The links to all proposals are at the bottom of the page in Related Links

You can respond to any or all of the proposals.

 
 

Why your views matter

We welcome the views of all those interested in these proposals, including local residents, town and parish councils, businesses and the voluntary sector. 

Before implementing a proposal, the Secretary of State is required to consult any local authority that is affected by the proposal (but which has not submitted it), and any such other persons as he considers appropriate.  

The Secretary of State is therefore consulting the councils which made the proposals, other councils affected by the proposals and the councils in neighbouring areas which may be affected by the proposals.   

He also considers it appropriate to consult public service providers, including health providers and the police, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and certain other business, voluntary sector and educational bodies. A full list of the named consultees is at Annex B in the consultation document - see link at the bottom of this page to the full consultation document.

Please use the link below to respond to the consultation, but if you prefer you can email your response to the questions in this consultation to unitaryconsultation@communities.gov.uk

If you are responding in email or writing, please make it clear which area and questions you are responding to.  Written responses should be sent to:

Governance Reform and Democracy

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

2 Marsham Street

London

SW1P 4DF

If you are replying by email or post, please would you confirm whether you are replying as an individual or submitting an official response on behalf of an organisation and indicate the nature of the organisation and include:

  • your name, 

  • Are you responding as a resident or on behalf of an organisation? Please indicate as below: 

    • Resident living in area affected 

    • Resident not living in area affected 

    • Business organisation

    • Education organisation

    • Local government organisation - principal council

    • Local Government organisation - parish/town council

    • Local Government organisation - other

    • Police organisation

    • Fire organisation

    • Health organisation

    • Other 

  • your position in the organisation and what is the organisation's name (if applicable), 

  • an email address 

The Government is also consulting on local government reform in North Yorkshire and Somerset – see links below

What happens next

On 22 February 2021 the Secretary of State launched a statutory consultation on eight locally led proposals for local government reorganisation received from councils in Cumbria, North Yorkshire, and Somerset. He welcomed views from any interested persons, including residents.

The consultation closed on 19 April and received 13,020 responses. Of these, 3,225 were in relation to Cumbria, 4,297 in relation to North Yorkshire, and 5,498 in relation to Somerset.

After careful consideration of the eight locally led proposals, all representations received, including the 13,020 responses to the statutory consultation, and of all other relevant information available to him, including for Somerset the results of a local poll and the representations received about it and its conduct, the Secretary of State has decided to implement, subject to Parliamentary approval:

  • For Cumbria, a proposal submitted by Allerdale and Copeland councils for two unitary councils – the East unitary covering Barrow, Eden and South Lakeland and the West unitary covering Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland.
  • For North Yorkshire, a proposal submitted by the county council for a single unitary for the whole of the administrative county of North Yorkshire.
  • For Somerset, a proposal submitted by the county council for a single unitary covering the whole of the administrative county of Somerset.

Establishing these new unitary councils will help ensure the people and businesses across Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset can have the sustainable high-quality local services they deserve. 

The Secretary of State announced these decisions to Parliament via a Written Ministerial Statement which you can access here  https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-07-21/hcws234. The Secretary of State intends around the turn of the year to lay before Parliament the draft Orders which, if approved by Parliament, will give effect to these decisions, leading to elections for the unitary councils in May 2022 and for those councils to be fully up and running from April 2023.