The Cumbria Police, Fire and Crime Panel met on Monday 12 October 2026 in the Council Chamber at Allerdale House in Workington. The Panel is the cross-party body that scrutinises the work of Cumbria’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner on behalf of residents across the county. This meeting was mostly about money, buildings and the move to the new Mayor next year.
Police finances
The first-quarter finance report for 2026/27, covering the period to 30 June, shows the Constabulary forecasting an overspend of £0.496m (0.29%) against a revised net budget of £173.439m. The biggest pressure is police officer pay, forecast to be £1.300m over budget. The papers put this down to recruiting early to hit national officer uplift targets and secure the maximum grant, extra support for rape and serious sexual offences work, and overtime linked to custody.
This is partly offset by a £0.637m underspend on police staff because of high vacancy levels, and by a £0.628m underspend in the Commissioner’s own budgets, much of it from lower capital financing charges because capital projects have slipped. Taken together, the overall group position is a small underspend of £0.132m. The police capital programme is £6.908m, with £0.258m spent by the end of June.
One of my Liberal Democrat colleagues asked about the proportion of funding for police services in rural areas, following the recent spate of agricultural crime issues.
Fire finances are a real concern
The Fire and Rescue Service picture is more worrying. Against a revised budget of £32.394m, the Service is forecasting an overspend of £0.508m (1.58%). The pressures include more on-call turnouts than this time last year, higher water rates, higher fuel costs, a late invoice for vehicle repairs, and increases in insurance, legal and audit costs.
I asked about reserves. The general fund balance was £4.180m at 1 April 2026 and is now forecast to fall to £3.631m by 31 March 2027, against a prudent minimum level of £4.671m. The papers say the balance is forecast to stay below that minimum in every year from 2026/27 to 2030/31. This is the same warning the Panel raised in July, and it is one we will need to keep pressing on.
The move to the Mayor
We had an update on the transfer of the Commissioner’s powers to the new Cumbria Mayor. The timetable in the papers is:
- November 2026: draft legislation for police and for fire expected to be laid before Parliament
- 6 May 2027: Mayoral election
- 10 May 2027: the Mayor takes office and police and fire functions transfer
Until then the Commissioner keeps all current powers. The Mayor will have to appoint a Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, and fire functions are expected to be delegated to the same person. The approach is described as “lift and shift”, keeping existing arrangements where the law allows, with police and fire budgets kept ringfenced and staff transferring with their employment protections. The report does not say what the change will mean for the Panel itself.
I asked for clarity about the police and fire functions that are specifically reserved for the Mayor, rather than the Deputy Mayor, and also delays in the timetable for the changes around Police, Fire and Crime Panels.
Police and fire buildings
A report on the police and fire estate set out progress on a new Estate Strategy, a new asset management system and a programme of repairs. Locally, it confirms that improvement work at Longtown Fire Station was completed in 2025, focusing on welfare, compliance and condition. More widely, a late 2025 assessment of the fire service’s training towers found 13 structurally unsafe and taken out of use, and £1.4 million of Government funding has been secured to replace and repair them by March 2027.
I asked about the potential for further cooperation between police, fire and other statutory services (e.g. the NHS and local councils) to jointly make the best use of buildings, a good example being the ‘blue light hub’ in Ulverston shared between police, fire and ambulances.
Other business
- Complaints: two complaints about the Commissioner were received in August 2026 and are being dealt with under the Panel’s procedure.
- Chief Fire Officer: interviews for the new Chief Fire Officer are due on 16 October 2026. The Panel will hold a confirmation hearing within three weeks of being told who the preferred candidate is.
The next meeting of the Panel is on 29 January 2027 at 10.30am in the Council Chamber at Kendal Town Hall.
The full papers for the meeting are available here: Cumbria Police, Fire and Crime Panel, 12 October 2026.
As ever, if you have any questions about any of this, or there is anything I can help with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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