Barrow and Furness Labour throw their support behind the creation of a new Bay Unitary Authority

Barrow and Furness Constituency Labour Party has confirmed its support for a new unitary local government structure, proposed by three existing councils, that will cover the Morecambe Bay area. The new authority would be known as The Bay Authority and would take over all the various local government functions currently carried out by Cumbria County Council, Barrow Borough Council, South Lakeland District Council and Lancaster City Council.

The new Bay authority would cover the geographic area of Barrow, South Lakeland and Lancaster councils.

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.

There are four proposals put forward for public consultation and one of these, The Bay, has cross party support amongst local politicians in Barrow Borough, South Lakeland and Lancaster councils. In addition, in a survey on The Bay council structure, already carried out with 4,000 members of the public, this new authority proved extremely popular.

Chris Altree, Chairman of Barrow and Furness Constituency Labour Party said, “We would urge our local public to get actively involved in the consultation process on the new authority proposals.

We in the local Labour Party firmly believe the right choice for Barrow and Furness is The Bay proposal. It is a common geographical area we are already used to with it being the same area covered by the Morecambe Bay Health Trust. There is a historic connection between Lancaster and other areas in the Morecambe Bay area like Barrow, Ulverston, Grange-over-Sands and more, and it is also has a common broadcast area with the same TV and radio services.” “We already know that 96% of the workforce here live in The Bay and 75% of all house moves take place within the Morecambe Bay area. This authority would be so strong as we would be getting over 2 million visitors to the area per year, we would have two university campuses and two national parks.

Barrow and Furness Labour firmly believe The Bay is the right option for a new local government for our community to improve business, create sustainable jobs, grow a climate friendly economic agenda and improve the lives of our citizens”the same TV and radio services.” “We already know that 96% of the workforce here live in The Bay and 75% of all house moves take place within the Morecambe Bay area. This authority would be so strong as we would be getting over 2 million visitors to the area per year, we would have two university campuses and two national parks.

Members of the public can see all four of the proposals submitted for consultation and contribute their opinions, at the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government website at,

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

The consultation ends on April 19th
.