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ancient counties of Cumberland and Westmorland also remember the democratic goodwill which today, sadly, seems to have been replaced by party politics, a much more inferior way of doing things and which frequently is not democratic.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