THE BIG ALSTON ROBBERY

 

 

 

Why did politicians

fail

this town?

Alston resident Trevor Reed  in a letter to the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald  newspaper launches an attack against the way the town has been robbed of  its essential services. The Cumbria town,1,000 feet up in the Pennines, claims to be the highest market town in England.

 The Big Alston Robbery which you could call it, is a shocking tale . Some might say it portrayed Alston as one of those deprived northern places in need of Boris Johnson`s current cure-all he calls “levelling up”.

 Alston however has a long way to go before any“levelling up” can be tackled, let alone   achieved. Loss of essential services spanning half a century has left a gap that seems impossible to fill and make “level”.

 Surprisingly, Mr Reed`s  blast failed  to include one other  robbed essential service which he might  add to his list …rail and bus links…  the cottage hospital,… the medical centre… three banks…shops and pubs …and now the ambulance.

That other  robbed essential service is Alston Rural District Council which was based in the  Town Hall, pictured.

 

 The council  was abolished in 1974, the same year that Mr Reed arrived at Alston and the same year that both Cumberland and Westmorland  were also abolished.

It was all part of  prime minister Edward Heath`s massive, but much criticised local government reorganisation.

How much has Alston missed its rural council? My guess is  that it has been missed a great deal. It was a  link with Whitehall and an on the spot forum. It was also an on the spot centre for a staff of local government professionals.

Eden District Council which took over from the rural council  is a poor substitute. An even poorer substitute is on its way for Alston. The town will soon be  included  in a new local government area alongside   a town as different as you can get, and as far away in Cumbria as you can get.

That new area is the planned Westmorland half  of what will then be the former county of Cumbria which apparently will disappear. Alston in Westmorland will be  alongside the shipbuilding town of Barrow, 71 miles away and also in Westmorland.

On the face of it, this seems a deplorable situation, just as deplorable  as the uncaring  attitude of the politicians to the loss of  Alston`s services.

Mr Reed rightly castigates these politicians and singles out one of them for special mention.That politician is his MP, Dr. Neil Hudson (Penrith and the Border), who, says Mr Reed,  has failed to reply to his emails.

Perhaps Dr. Hudson might now like to reply . He might also enclose full details of Boris Johnson`s “levelling up” plan and let us see if there is anything in it for Alston.

It might help.

But based on past form, it won`t.

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

 

 

HALT THE MERCILESS SLICING OF CUMBRIA

 

Now let us restore

our ancient counties

 Spare a thought for our dear old Cumbria, as the merciless slicing of the county goes on and on.

Not only the government, but now two well-known newspaper correspondents, Jeremy Godwin and very surprisingly, Nick Elgey are busily hacking away.

 The goverment of course, with its planned local authority changes believes in vertical slicing: one  slice between the  six district councils and hey presto, the county is halved. Job done.

 

 Mr Godwin believes in kingdom separation...the West Cumbria kingdom and the East Cumbria kingdom. 

Mr Elgey, an estate agent, reports that property  market forces are  at work doing the slicing which means that property purchasers, probably for the first time, are favouring north Cumbria rather than the south.

County slicing, of course, is nothing new. Usually it goes  with  democracy and goodwill.

Those of us who remember the ancient counties of Cumberland and Westmorland also remember the democratic goodwill which today, sadly, seems to have been replaced by party politics, a much more inferior way of doing things and which frequently is not democratic.

Those people will recall that in Cumberland the county council  was always conscious of, and prepared to  cater for  the competing  claims  of West Cumbria( the Whitehaven and Workington districts) and   North Cumbria (the Carlisle and Penrith districts).

 In Westmorland the same goodwill applied and its county council regularly each 

year     alternated a north Westmorland chairman to adequately cater for the the needs 

of   the Appleby and Kirkby Stephen districts with a south Westmorland chairman   for the needs of Kendal and Windermere districts.

In both counties the goodwill systems worked very well until 1974 when Prime Minister Edward Heath decided  that ancient counties were not for him. 

And  the name of the new county, Cumbria, emerged from God knows where.(Some people swear that  Mr.Heath craftily  grabbed the name from a local  magazine publisher!)

It seems to me, and I think lots of people, that the goodwill  and democracy that existed in the two counties in the years  prior to Mr Heath is still there.

Therefore let us put an end  to the  current intolerable slicing of our county. Let us restore all that democratic goodwill.

Then let us restore  our ancient counties.

 

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227