Give Cumbria more funding, not a mayor - Tim Farron tells Minister

Local MP Tim Farron has told Government ministers that residents and businesses in Cumbria don’t want yet another reorganisation of local councils.

It comes as the Government have published a white paper this week on English Devolution, which states that their “ambition remains for all parts of England to ultimately have a Mayoral Strategic Authority.”

Tim asked for local councils in Cumbria to be given greater powers and funding but argued that a mayor must not be imposed on the county.

Tim said: “The Minister will know that in Cumbria we are still going through the process of a reorganisation that happened just 18 months ago.

“For better or worse, all reorganisations are massively distracting and take people’s eyes off the ball. Does he understand why residents, businesses and everybody else in both parts of Cumbria - we now have two local authorities - are outraged at the thought that a mayoral model might be imposed on us? 

“Is that not the opposite of devolution? Is it not right that local communities should be able to have the devolution that we want?

“We are up for all the devolution that the Minister will give us, but we do not see why we have to have a top-down mayoral model and be told that we have to have a reorganisation again, five minutes after the last one.”

Responding, Jim McMahon Minister for Local Government and English Devolution said: “I pay tribute to leaders in Cumbria for the engagement that we have had with them; I recognise that they have just been through a local government reorganisation and that there has been a lot to settle in the area. They have embraced our conversations with great maturity, and those conversations have been fruitful, but we recognise that different places are at different points. 

“Different places have different pressures that they need to reconcile, which is why we are looking at a priority programme for the areas that will soon be ready to go. We need to get the legislation and consultation in place and make the case to the public. We accept that some areas will need longer.”

“On mayors, I have been here long enough to see a number of Members stand up and protest against the idea of a mayor, only to pop up a bit later as the candidate for the same position, so I say to people in Cumbria: be careful what you wish for.”