Liberal Democrat councillors asked our full quota of questions at the meeting of Cumberland’s full council on 13 January 2026.
3. Councillor Dobson submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Environment and Planning
‘Could the Councillor set out how many footpaths in the Cumberland Council area are currently closed? What proportion of the overall network do these closures represent, both in terms of number and total length?’
In response, the Portfolio Holder said ‘As of January 5th 2026 in Cumberland there was 21 closures in place totalling 13.2km or 0.79% of the Public Rights of Way Network. There are also 3 Emergency closures totalling 1.32km or 0.079% of the network. The percentage figure relates to the 1,655km directly managed by the Council’s countryside access team whilst a further 1,386km is managed under an agency agreement with the Lake District National Park Authority. Temporary public right of way closures can occur for a number of reasons and are secured using Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders or TTROs.
The Council may seek to close paths where required for the safety of the public and can be undertaken as an emergency measure or to safely undertake planned works such as resurfacing or drainage. External requests may also be made by third parties where required for safety, again these may be in response to an emergency or for planned works, for example by a utilities company or developer’
Councillor Dobson in a supplementary question asked if the Portfolio Holder would clarify the steps the council was taking to reduce the number of long term footpath closures, as he said he knew of some for more than three years, and could the Portfolio Holder clarify if there was a clear timetable or prioritisation process to ensure that communities, especially rural areas, will gain access to them’
The Portfolio Holder asked Councillor Dobson to send the question to him in writing and he would undertake to provide an answer. Councillor
4. Councillor Dobson submitted the following question to the Leader
‘We are now more than three and a half years into Local Government Reorganisation, a process intended to deliver improved services and achieve savings through the merger of the three District Councils and part of the County Council.
Could the Leader set out which services have demonstrably improved as a result of reorganisation, and how much money has been saved to date? In addition, will he explain what obstacles remain to the further integration of services – for example in planning – and to realising greater efficiencies and cost savings?’
The Leader provided the following response ‘It took over £55m out of the budget over the last 3 years and there will be further reductions in that budget over the next 12-18 months. Following the merger, and looking at the services we have many that have improved and many achievements; we achieved a Good Ofsted rating from the Inspection of Children’s Services within 18 months which reflects our strong commitment to improving the lives of children and young people, we have introduced a new auto enrolment system for free school meals, which is quite ground-breaking allowing us to tackle child poverty, nearly 600 children who were not previously claiming were enrolled, 95% of the Council’s maintained schools are rated Good or Outstanding, the launch of new Family Hubs with more to be rolled out, we have recommissioned the 0-19 Healthy Child Programme, a contract that was not delivering to our levels or requirements, introduction of new bus routes on a community based approach, the Neighbourhood Investment Fund where £700k has been provided out to community groups, we are supporting low income households through partnership with the DWP, £22m of support through our Council Tax Reduction Scheme providing relief to 18,000 residents in low income households including 7,000 pensioners, improving health and wellbeing, Adult Social Care housing teams have been working to ensure that more people are supported to stay at home or return to home after hospital stays, increasing intermediate care beds from 12 to 28, reablement capacity increased by 51% helping to relieve stress on the NHS by working with partners, supporting towns and communities, over 8,700 potholes repaired in 2024/25 across our road network of 2,254 miles, major Regeneration Programmes and their associated benefits for instance footfall in Maryport is up 35%, town deep cleans and supporting events which provide significant boosts to local economies, 146k people attended 8 major events led by the council with evaluation from 4 of those events is estimated a total local economic benefit of over £4m.
These are just some of our listed improvements, we do have more’
Councillor Dobson thanked the Leader for the comprehensive response and asked whether he would publish a plan, looking at those remaining service areas where we expect efficiencies, such as Planning and back office services.
The Leader explained that ‘the Council’s Our Future Cumberland programme is part of that process. In terms of services like Planning and Building Control, there are some slight weaknesses in terms of numbers against the statutory work that we have to provide however we believe the service we provide is really positive.
We have established a number of apprenticeships in Building Control, local developers are starting to use our services again, a real positive step. What we don’t want to do is to dilute services, make services weaker we want to be able to change the way that we operate and make things better’.
5. Councillor Pickstone submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Financial Planning and Assets
‘On 17 December 20205, the Government announced the Provisional local government finance settlement 2026 to 2027. Could the Portfolio Holder for Financial Planning and Assets inform members what Cumberland Council’s response has been to the subsequent consultation?’
The Portfolio Holder circulated to members in the meeting a copy of a briefing provided to members by the Chief Finance Officer (S151 Officer) on 22nd December 2025. The Portfolio Holder stated ‘our officers are currently reviewing the detail and is preparing a formal response to the consultation ahead of it closing. It is unfortunate that the consultation has a short closing, especially as it opened as the Settlement was announced just before Christmas. Nevertheless we are working on the response and when submitted, will be circulated to all members.
Our response will cover several key points, regarding the timing and complexity of the Settlement, we have little time to analyse significant changes to funding formula and a grant distribution, the Core Spending Power, their funding formula and distribution of resources’.
In a supplementary question, Councillor Pickstone asked the Portfolio Holder for assurance that the consultation response would address the issue of the ‘sparsity’ funding being taken out for everything except Adult Social Care.
In response, the Portfolio Holder confirmed there had been considerable debate around the sparsity issue and would be included in the response.
6. Councillor Pickstone submitted the following question to the Deputy Leader (Statutory)
‘Could the Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care inform members on how the Council has been working with our local NHS, to address the significant pressures faced this winter by flu cases and other issues?
‘The Deputy Leader (Statutory) replied as follows ‘Adult social care teams liaise daily with the NHS regarding patient flow through the hospitals via a series of daily hub meetings. There are also arrangements to step up additional meetings to support patient flow. The social care services provide daily discharge and assessment activity to support patients who are medically fit to leave hospital, but who may have some ongoing care needs including equipment and assistive technology.
Social care staff are located in hospitals to support patient flow and community support is also in place to help prevent admission to hospital via the use of intermediate care options which include our reablement service both in the individuals home or in a therapy led bed-based environment for a maximum of 6 weeks’
Councillor Pickstone commented that from looking at the NHS Dashboard it seemed that North Cumbria NHS was very much at the bottom half in terms of discharge figures and asked, was this something the council were looking to improve working with NHS colleagues.
The Deputy Leader (Statutory) confirmed that of course patient support was always part of the conversations within the service.
7. Councillor Wills submitted the following question to the Portfolio Holder for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places
‘Can the Portfolio Holder confirm when they were first notified of Stagecoach’s intention to withdraw bus Service 69 in Carlisle, and what engagement took place to challenge or modify this decision?’
The Portfolio Holder replied to say ‘As explained, the Council maintains ongoing dialogue with operators, we have quarterly meetings with Stagecoach, our conversations are very open and honest and commercially sensitive as we discuss routes that are challenged with decline in usage and financial sustainability. We work with them to look for solutions, as it may be something that is within our control.
We were told informally on the 3rd October and Council were notified formally on 23rd October. I would like to highlight that this service has been changed on three occasions in the last two years, to try and rationalise the service but it has but the service has consistently had significant low patronage. It is important to note that the Council can only act once formal notice of withdrawal is received. Until then, Service 69 remained a registered commercial route, and under the Transport Act 1985, we are prohibited from subsidising a service that is still commercially operated.
At this moment the Public Transport team are exploring alternative solutions within the available funding we have got and monitoring the impact on affected communities and consider options for supported services where we have gaps in provision’.
Councillor Wills asked whether the Portfolio Holder could provide assurance that there will be a replacement service, accessible to the previous No.69 users who were really dependent on that service.
In response, the Portfolio Holder said ‘a service would not be brought back like for like, it was a really struggling service therefore we need to look at doing something differently. We need to look for innovative ideas that could meet our criteria and are more cost effective, the team will be looking at this’.
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