Cumberland Council’s Planning Committee today approved the application for a significant commercial and industrial development at Harker, just to the north of the Junction 44 motorway roundabout.
The application is in two parts, both of which have been approved:
– Full planning permission for three ‘medium’ sized industrial units with a new roundabout on the A7 (the pink area below).
– Outline planning permission for the whole site, which would include much larger distribution facilities and also mixed commercial (e.g. a drive through and other shops), (the blue and green areas below),
The details of the Planning Committee are here: https://cumberland.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=169&MId=14528&Ver=4
The papers for the application are here: 22/0836 – Former Grearshill Farm and Land surrounding, Harker, Carlisle, CA6 4HW PDF 289 KB
The application had received a lot of objections from local residents, though the public consultation was three years ago. Alongside local residents, and a representative of Kingmoor Parish Council, I spoke against the application (full text of speech below).
Sadly the Planning Committee didn’t agree, and both aspects of the application were approved.
Speech
Planning Committee Speech – Cllr Tim Pickstone, Longtown Ward
Thank you Chair, and thank you for the opportunity to speak at the meeting of the Planning Committee today.
My name is Tim Pickstone, and I am the elected member for Longtown Ward, in which the northern part of this proposed development sits. I have the honour of representing the residents of Harker, and the neighbouring communities of Blackford and Westlinton up the A7.
Chair, I wish to address three key points today.
- The principle – this site is not in the Local Plan
Firstly, this site is not allocated for industrial or distribution use in the Carlisle Local Plan. Members will recall that the Local Plan was the product of extensive consultation — with residents, parish councils, and businesses all contributing — to determine where development should and should not happen.
The conclusion of that democratic process was clear: this land should remain farmland – and I am informed it has been continuously farmed throughout.
.
Immediately across the motorway at Kingmoor and Kingstown lies one of the largest employment allocations in the county, already providing land for logistics, retail, manufacturing, and even multiple drive-through restaurants and food outlets.
What we have before us today would be the first extension of Carlisle’s urban area “over the motorway”. Up to now, the M6 has formed a clear and logical boundary — with urban Carlisle to the south and west, and open countryside beyond.
You are being asked to break that boundary and approve a major urban-scale development in open countryside, outside the Local Plan process.
The justification offered is that “market demand outweighs other considerations.” I would argue that the existing employment land supply is more than sufficient, and that approving this scheme would undermine the plan-led system that ensures development happens in the right place and in the right sequence.
And Chair, we are already consulting on a new Cumberland Local Plan. That is the correct vehicle for considering whether additional land should be allocated — through proper evidence and public consultation — not through ad-hoc decisions of this kind.
- The impact on residents
Secondly, Chair, the impact on local residents.
Harker is a small hamlet at the eastern end of Rockcliffe parish — a peaceful rural community currently surrounded by open fields.
Members will also be aware that planning permission has already been granted and construction is well under way for 300 new family homes on the former MOD land immediately north of this site.
This proposal would place industrial and large-scale distribution buildings directly alongside those new homes — literally at the end of people’s gardens. One of the buildings shown in the outline plans would be larger than the entire new housing estate of 300 family homes combined.
I simply cannot see how it can be right to introduce heavy goods traffic, 24-hour operations, lighting, and noise so close to established and newly approved residential areas. This is not co-location of compatible uses; it is industrial intrusion into a growing residential community.
- Traffic and highways
Thirdly, Chair, a word on traffic.
National Highways themselves initially expressed concern about the capacity of Junction 44 to accommodate this scale of development. They were right to do so.
Junction 44 is already one of the busiest and most complex interchanges in Cumbria, linking six major routes — the M6 north and south, the A689, A7, and A6071, plus local distributor roads into Carlisle.
It is congested now. Residents tell me, and I can confirm from experience, that queues on the A7 regularly back up past the site towards Harker Park during the morning peak.
Into that mix, the proposal would add a new roundabout and a priority junction serving a major industrial estate. That simply does not stack up.
The proposed relatively minor improvements to the Junction 44 roundabout are welcome, but will perhaps help with the existing problem. Other “mitigation” proposed — a short stretch of cycle lane ending at the extremely un-cycle-friendly Junction 44 roundabout, plus £94,000 towards signalising a nearby junction — is, frankly, woefully inadequate.
If Junction 44 is to play a long-term role in Carlisle’s economic growth, it will need major, strategic investment, not piecemeal tweaks. This application could and should have been a chance to secure that — yet the opportunity is being missed.
Chair, the delays in considering this application means that we are now three years since the original public consultation on this proposal. A lot has happened in three years, not least around traffic as we have moved from the period immediately post-covid, but also, as in any residential area, there has probably been a 20% turnover in residents.
I am surprised there has not been further public consultaiton, given the time delays, and would urge you to consider that today.
Conclusion
Chair, this is not the right site and not the right time.
It conflicts with the adopted Local Plan, extends the urban footprint of Carlisle across the motorway into open countryside, sits uncomfortably close to new and existing homes, and risks worsening already severe traffic congestion at Junction 44.
If the Council believes more employment land is genuinely needed in this area, that should be tested transparently through the Cumberland Local Plan process — not by approving a speculative application today.
I therefore urge the Committee to refuse this application, or at the very least to defer it — to allow for proper public consultation and for credible traffic mitigation to be developed.
Thank you, Chair.
Leave a Reply