At the last full meeting of Cumberland Council myself and the other Liberal Democrat councillors submitted the following written questions. Here are the questions and the response from the Executive Member.
Councillor Pickstone submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places –
‘Is Cllr Rollo, the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places aware that Network Rail is planning to close the West Coast mainline through Cumbria for two weeks in January 2026, and then for at least three more two-week periods during 2026-28, leaving Carlisle and Cumberland without mainline rail links? Are they willing to make representations to Network Rail for diversionary rail routes to be used rather than bus replacement for such prolonged periods on a key economic link?’
The main issue will be is that it coincides with the closure of the M6 so myself and officers in the Infrastructure Planning and Transport Team have raised the issue with Network Rail and requested an exploration of diversionary rail routes. Network Rail have confirmed that along with the train operators they are currently investigating the possibility of using other lines such as the Settle to Carlisle, as diversionary routes, to try and limit the need for rail replacement buses where possible.
With regards to the three, two-week closures planned, Network Rail have clarified that this is an initial strategy proposal and not the finalised agreed position. Once they have confirmed the viability of the diversion routes for the project, they will inform the Council, and it will also be published via their communication channels’.
Councillor Pickstone submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places –
‘Following heavy use and two years of high rainfall, many of our rural roads are suffering from deep ruts it the grass verges adjoining the carriageway. Could Cllr Rollo, Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places inform members what plans the council has to tackle this potentially dangerous situation?’
The Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places replied to say ‘In line with our policy, highways staff inspect the entire road network. Any safety issues found, are identified, and rectified to remove any risk to the public. As I always suggest, for any issue relating to health and safety issues on the highways please report them to your Highways mentor as soon as possible’.
In response Councillor Pickstone said the question was referring to a particular problem that had resulted following two years of wet summers causing a problem almost everywhere and asked could a general inspection be undertaken on rural roads.
The Portfolio Holder reiterated the point she had made, that health and safety inspections were regularly carried out and asked if Councillor Pickstone had seen anything in particular that needed picked up to please report it.
Councillor Wernham submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places –
‘Can Cllr Rollo, the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places provide an update on its application for funding under the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) scheme and all other upcoming schemes? Given that only 10 of 78 projects have been approved for delivery nationwide as of October 2024, what steps has Cumberland Council taken to ensure our application progresses, and what is the anticipated timeline for the installation of EV charge points in our area? What efforts is the Council making to progress kerbside charging across pavements for residents in terraced houses?’
In response the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places said ‘The (LEVI) scheme is the only scheme we are aware of currently.Funding was approved and Cumberland Council received £3.465M in March 2025.
Permission to commence procurement for a supplier was granted by the Executive on the 8th April 2025. The Current timeline is as follows:
· Looking to go out to tender in May 2025
· Tender Evaluation June 2025
· Contract awarded July 2025
· Service solution finalised Autumn 2025
In order to progress this project the following actions are being taken;
· We attend regular monthly meetings with the Energy Saving Trust
· We meet with members of Energy Saving trust – local authority Decarbonising transport workstream
· We meet as Members of Transport for North to share best practice
· Specialist training is being completed by our EV Infrastructure Team.
The project is focused on ensuring that a minimum of 70% of residents with no access to off street parking will have a charger at a location within 5 minutes’ walk of their home. This will comprise a mix of Lamp post chargers and pedestal chargers with up to a 22kW charge.
Where this is not feasible for example in more rural areas, chargers will be made available at local community hubs. Members can raise any expected issues for their areas with their Community Panel leads’.
Councillor Wernham asked in a supplementary question, could the council commit to looking into the possibility of carrying out a trial for kerbside charging from terraced houses through channels across the pavements to cars.
In her reply the Portfolio Holder mentioned that previous reports taken to the Executive, and a number of member briefings had covered the subject. The council was going out to tender for a company that works with the infrastructure all of the time and who will advise and guide in what can be used and where. The Portfolio Holder said if members had a particular point to raise in relation to their ward then they could raise it through their Community Panels and the Executive would be more than happy to have those conversations with them.
Councillor Dobson submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Financial Planning and Assets –
‘Will Cllr Cannon, the Portfolio Holder for Financial Planning and Assets, advise the council what total borrowings and investments were on the 1st of April 2025? Given that the medium-term financial plan forecasts that interest payments for fiscal year 2026/27 will rise by 40% to almost £6.5 million what does she forecast will be our borrowings during that year?’
The Portfolio Holder for Financial Planning and Assets said ‘At 1st April 2025 the Council’s external borrowing totalled £283m. £238m of that came from the existing sovereign authorities, which meant we have borrowed £45m in new borrowing, of which £16m has been repaid.
The Council’s treasury investments at 31st March 2025 totalled £77m.
Details of projected borrowing were set out in the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy Statement, presented to Council alongside the 2025-26 Budget and Medium-Term Financial Plan at the meeting held on 4 March of this year.
The Council’s three-year capital budget, approved by this Council in March, includes unfinanced capital expenditure met from borrowing of £171m.
This is in addition to the £41m of capital expenditure to be met from borrowing in 2024-25.
To reflect the revenue implications of this additional borrowing the Council’s Treasury budget incorporates growth of £3.9m in 2025-26, £6.4m in 2026-27 and £2.5m in 2027-28.
This growth in the treasury budget reflects not just the additional interest cost associated with the increase in external borrowing but also the additional Minimum Revenue Provision associated with the unfinanced capital expenditure included in the capital budget.
The Minimum Revenue Provision is an annual amount the Council is required to be set aside from its General Fund to meet the capital cost of expenditure financed by debt’.
Councillor Dobson submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places –
‘Ninety years after the Department of Transport began exploring by-pass routes for Corby Hill and Warwick Bridge National Highways has identified the A69 from Brampton to the M6 Junction 43 as one of two candidates for de-trunking as part of its road investment strategy for 2025 -26. – subject to the A689 becoming trunked from Brampton to M6 Junction 44. The obvious time for this change is end of March 2026 when the 30-year Build and Maintain contract on the A69 expires.
Can Cllr Rollo, the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places ensure the Council facilitates this change, including renegotiating the PFI contract with Connect that covers several roads like the A689?
Will she also ensure that the Highways Department plan safety improvements in Warwick Bridge so that when the council assumes responsibility, we are able to introduce an HGV ban, enforce a 20-mph speed limit, install at least one pedestrian crossing, and introduce alternate one way working on the bridge to allow safe cycle and pedestrian crossing?’
The Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places replied to say ‘The Council will continue to liaise with National Highways and the Dft on the de-trunking of the A69 through Corby Hill and Warwick Bridge and the trunking of the A689 from Brampton to the M6 Junction 44. If this progresses then the existing contract with Connect Roads who maintain the A689 will have to be amended. Only at this time will the council have any responsibility for the installation of safety improvements on the road and then it will liaise with all concerned on the improvements.
Presently the management of the A69 including safety improvements, speed limits, HGV bans and crossing points are the responsibility of National Highways and Roadlink and the Council has little input or responsibility for this road’
Councillor Wills submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Financial Planning and Assets –
‘In 2024 Cumberland Council spent over £15m on employing agency staff. Whilst much of this money was spent on ensuring essential services, expenditure of over one million pounds a month on agency staff is unsustainable for a local authority. Please can Cllr Cannon, the Portfolio Holder for Financial Planning and Assets explain the plan for significantly reducing this level of spend?’
In response the Portfolio Holder for Financial Planning and Assets said the following ‘Agency workers are used within the council to cover a mixture of specialist temporary support, hard to recruit to vacancies and to cover sickness absence within our statutory areas.
To address agency use linked to vacancies and hard to recruit roles, we have implemented a range of recruitment initiatives including the development of a talent acquisition marketing strategy that has doubled the number of applicants per vacant role. As well as this we have set up recruitment marketing infrastructure including targeted social media ads, google search ads,, sponsored listings on Indeed and LinkedIn, AI-assisted headhunting systems and built and launched a careers website and introduced reporting.
We have also invested in our Social Care academy programme which has onboarded a number of newly qualified social workers, with further due to start in September 2025. As well as this, we have launched our international recruitment programme which has welcomed individuals into our social care teams across the council. We are currently exploring if the academy approach can be used within other hard to recruit areas.
To address agency use that has a link to sickness absence the Council have been proactive by:
· Delivering an additional physio pilot within the Adult Care Sector
with the aim to support our employees back to work
· We have regular meetings within the HR team to review absences
with each Directorate and are developing absence reduction strategies to resolve long-term cases across the Council with the aim of supporting employees back to work
· We have developed a Health and Wellbeing attendance policy
which when finalised will be rolled out with full support and guidance to managers. With the launch of the policy, the return-to-work interview process has been reviewed to ensure that every employee when they return to work from absence has a good quality conversation therefore absence levels do not reoccur
· We are reviewing the occupational health service as this is hosted
service Westmorland and Furness. An options report is being developed which considers a new way of delivering occupational health within Cumberland with the aim to reduce absenteeism.
By delivering the above the aim is to minimise the reliance on temporary staff and mitigate the impact of absenteeism on our Council’.
The Portfolio Holder undertook to find out and provide a written response following the meeting.
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