Talk:Local Government Commission for England (1992)/Archive 1

Cumbria
Recently Cumberland and Westmorland were edited to imply that the electoral commission had recommended the restoration of Cumberland and Westmorland, but were ignored by the government. I couldn't find any copies of the Cumbria Draft and Final reports to buy, so emailed the Electoral Commission

I am afraid that we do not have spare copies of the reports, but I have summarised the recommendations for you. The 1994 review of Cumbria was part of a series of reviews which looked into whether the existing Counties and their districts could be more effectively run as Unitary Authorities. The attached map shows the existing districts in Cumbria. The draft recommendations gave 3 options: 1. No change; A county council for Cumbria and 6 district councils (areas 1-6 on the map). 2. 2 Unitary Authorities; South Cumbria - areas 3 and 4 and the southern part of 5 and North Cumbria areas 1,2 and 6 and most of 5. 3. 3 Unitary Authorities; South Cumbria (as above), West Cumbria - area 6 and most of 5, and Carlisle and Eden - areas 1 and 2. They also recommended the return of the historic boundaries of Lancashire and Yorkshire for ceremonial purposes, with either Cumberland and Westmorland ceremonial counties, or a Cumbria ceremonial county covering the two. Ceremonial Counties are the counties used by the Crown, with a Lord Lieutenant representing the Monarch in each area. The final recommendations proposed a retention of the two-tier, county and district structure. The Commission considered that it had received insufficient response to the proposal for a return to the historic boundaries for ceremonial county to endorse the idea in the final recommendations, and so proposed no change to ceremonial boundaries either. I hope that this answers your query.

Morwen - Talk 15:41, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

I then asked to clarify the authorities proposed

Although the report does not explicitly refer to the historic areas of Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness when making it's recommendations for the administrative boundaries, it does appear that the boundary change was intended to include all (or certainly most) of the Furness area in South Cumbria. The boundary between South Cumbria and the one or two authorities to the north is, however, not identical to the Westmorland/Cumberland boundary, with not all of Westmorland included in South Cumbria. Cumberland and Westmorland were not suggested as names for North and South Cumbria.

Morwen - Talk 16:17, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and for reference, the district numbers here are


 * 1) City of Carlisle
 * 2) Eden
 * 3) South Lakeland
 * 4) Barrow-in-Furness (borough)
 * 5) Copeland
 * 6) Allerdale

Morwen - Talk 10:16, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Uk or GB?
Bearing in mind the comment added that no changes were made in Northern Ireland in the 90s should this article be re-named changes in Great British local gov? --C Hawke 12:27, 23 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I was wondering whether it might even be worth just splitting this into 3 articles - although the move to unitary authorities in the 3 parts wasn't unrelated. Morwen - Talk 22:31, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

my own summary
this is from the final report:

draft recommendation one was two unitaries


 * North Cumbria: covering Barrow, South Lakeland and parts of Copeland (Millom) and Eden (Orton/Tebay/Shap/Ravenstonedale)
 * South Cumbria: the other covering Allerdale, Carlisle, and the rest of Copeland and Eden

recommendation two was three unitaries


 * South Cumbria: same as south cumbria above
 * West Cumbria: Allerdale, rest of Copeland
 * North Cumbria (Carlisle & Eden): Carlisle, rest of Eden

"The commission noted an interest at Stage 1 from local people (particularly in the south of the county) for the restoration of historic counties, and therefore proposed the following recommendation (which applied to either unitary option)


 * Those areas of Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council and South Lakeland District Council formerly in Lancashire should be returned to historic Lancashire for ceremonial and related purposess The areas currently in South Lakeland which were formerly in Yorkshire should be returned to historic Yorkshire for ceremonial and related purposes.  Other areas should similarly be restored to Cumberland and Westmorland (or remain as 'Cumbria') for ceremonial and related purposes."

"In the consultation report, the Commission noted support for the restoration of areas in the borough of Barrow-in-Furness and the district of South Lakeland to historic Lancashire and of the parishes of Dent, Garsdale and Sedbergh to historic Yorkshire. It also asked for views on whether the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland should be restored for ceremonial and related issues.  The Commission heard from few people on this subject during the consultation period, although support was indicated by the Friends of Real Lancashire.  In view of this, and the recommendation that there should be no change to the existing structure of local government, the Commission does not propose any changes."

194.66.226.95 11:03, 19 August 2006 (UTC)