POLITICIANS and businesspeople have welcomed the formation of the new Cumberland council, which will officially take over from the four current councils which oversee the area today.

Politicians in the city and beyond have welcomed the new authority for the area and wished the new council well in its infant years.

The creation of the council will see the four councils of Carlisle City Council, Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council all be replaced by one new Cumberland Unitary authority.

The new council will officially come into existence today, Saturday, April 1.

The new council means that services such as bin collections, planning applications, as well as children’s services and highways will now all come under one roof.

Carlisle City Council leader John Mallinson said: "I wish the new Cumberland Council every success.

"There will be exciting times ahead for Carlisle and I, like others, can’t wait to see the plans in place come to life - a new University Campus, a transformed Railway Station, regenerated city centre and much more.

"Carlisle is well and truly the place to be.”

Penrith and The Border MP Dr Neil Hudson has said that although he has had ‘reservations’ about local government reorganisation, he looks forward to working with the council on issues that affect his residents in the future.

Dr Hudson said: “I’ve put on record my reservations about local government reorganisation in Cumbria since the decision was made to push ahead with an East-West split.

"I was quite baffled to see such contrasting and disparate communities lumped together, particularly at a time when local services were still reeling from the massive impact of the pandemic.

“Since this initial disappointment, I have vowed to my constituents that I will work collegiately with all stakeholders to make the best of the changes in local government and remain hopeful that councillors will take the opportunity to boost local services.

“Recently I wrote to the new council to boost local bus services by properly utilising the £1.5million made available by the Conservative Government and also making sure affordable, fair and sustainable transport options are available to all 16-18-year-olds accessing training or education.

"I've made good progress on these issues so far and hope to continue this work alongside Cumberland councillors of all political parties.”

The MP for Carlisle John Stevenson has also welcomed the new council, saying that he has long since been a supporter of reorganisation; however, believes that a ‘devolution deal remains the ultimate prize’ for the county.

Mr Stevenson said: “I welcome the new Cumberland Council. I have long since been a supporter of local Government reform and the creation of two unitary authorities.

“I firmly believe this is a positive move for the residents of Carlisle who will now have more accountable and cost-effective services under one roof.

"Going forward the council must focus not only on the delivery of services but on the economic development of the area too.

“A devolution deal for Cumbria remains the ultimate prize and would create a huge opportunity for more funding deals as we have seen elsewhere in the country, with a strong champion for the county in the form of an elected Mayor, with local decisions being taken by local people for local people.

"I will continue to make representations on this locally and to Government, in the coming weeks.”

Carlisle’s Labour candidate for the next general election, Julie Minns, says she is looking forward to the ‘next chapter’ for the city of Carlisle.

Ms Minns said: "Bringing together our region's economic and social infrastructure under a Labour led authority that is focused on the health and wellbeing of residents, creates a real opportunity to unleash the potential of our city and wider region.

"I am looking forward to working with Mark Fryer and our Carlisle Councillors as we write this next chapter in our city's long and proud history."

Brian Wernham, Liberal Democrat parliamentary campaigner for Carlisle and councillor on the new authority, said: “The new Cumberland Unitary Authority Council gives us an opportunity to modernise and take action on urgent local problems.

“We need to update our transport infrastructure so as to reduce traffic jams. The only way we can do this is to get more people to use buses, otherwise the car jams will just get longer and longer.

“We also need to improve the biodiversity in our green spaces. Too many of them are just deserts of closely cut grass. I expect to be serving on the health committee and I want to see better pharmacy, dental and GP services.

“We have a growing and ageing population. This is all very exciting, but we must make sure that work that had been carried out by the County Council and the district councils is smoothly handed over to the Cumberland unitary authority."

Businesspeople have also sought reassurance over the future of business in Cumberland, after speaking to Cumberland council chief executive Andrew Seekings.

Mr Seekings and Sam Plum, chief exec of Westmorland and Furness, recently spoke at the LA23NET business network and took part in a Q&A session with around 70 business people from around the county.

Both chief executives said their focus was on ensuring that there was a smooth transition to the new councils, but they were ambitious to improve Cumbria and make the most of working in new ways once all services were part of the same authority.

John Haley, commercial partner at Edwin Thompson, one of the sponsors of LA23NET, said: “It was good to get an insight from the chief executives about the reorganisation and hear that improving planning will be one of the priorities.

"Economic development was also a hot topic and I was able to raise with them the lack of good commercial property opportunities and available development land in Cumbria.

“It is a big issue for a lot of local businesses looking to expand and hampering our ability to attract new companies to the area.”