An Update from Westmorland and Furness

There are now less two months to go until the start of the new Westmorland and Furness Council on 1 April and a phenomenal amount of work has happened to get us to this point, a lot more remains to be done but we are on track.

Elections were held in May last year and we now have 65 councillors in place and a new Cabinet providing leadership for the new authority. We have appointed a Chief Executive, Sam Plum, and our chief legal and financial officers, and they began in post at Christmas. But for now, they are still the only staff employed by the council.

Staff from the three district councils and the county council will transfer to Westmorland and Furness Council on 1 April, creating a workforce of around 4000 people. Some of those staff have been supporting the new council to get ready, which has allowed us to produce a council plan which sets out our vision and priorities for the area, and other key documents like the council’s constitution.

The council plan shows we have big ambitions, but initially it is unlikely that the public will notice much difference in the council services they receive. Our priority at first will be ensuring the transition between old and new councils goes smoothly and services continue to operate well. After that we’ll be looking at how we can capitalise on the opportunities presented by becoming a unitary authority to transform and improve services. That’s not going to happen overnight, but we hope we’ll be able to make progress in some areas quite quickly.

Despite this being all consuming for us, we know that many local people are a little unsure about what is happening. Over the next few weeks, in the run up to 1 April, you will be seeing a lot more public communication from the council to raise awareness of what’s happening.

You can find out more about the council at:

• westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk

• facebook.com/WestmorlandFurnessCouncil

• twitter.com/WandFCouncil