Town Council Opposed to Reduction in Councillors and Changes to Town Council Wards

Penrith Town Council will meet on Monday evening to discuss the local government boundary commission plans that include plans to reduce town councillor numbers from 15 to 14 and scrap the Penrith East Ward that voters on Thursday will be asked to elect a new councillor in a by election to fill a vacant seat that could be scrapped under the commission plans by the May 2027 town council elections.

The local government boundary commission is currently consulting on its proposed changes to Westmorland and Furness Council wards that will see Penrith gain an extra Westmorland and Furness Councillor but also see changes to the town council wards and council numbers.

The town council believes in a report that will be presented to councillors on Monday evening that the number of Councillors should remain as 15 as the number of Councillors for the parish have previously undergone a community governance review in 2019 reducing the number of Councillors from 19 to 15 due to the council having had a number of long-term vacant seats since it was created in 2015.

The town council has said the recommendation to lower the number of Councillors from 15 to 14 is not accepted. The council believes the Local Government Boundary Commission proposals “reduces the potential talent pool of the Council. We are fortunate to have a wide range of in-depth expertise that would be wrong to diminish.”

“As unpaid volunteers, increasing the workload will put off sitting councillors from standing in future elections and dissuade potential candidates from putting themselves forward. this will be especially true of those of working age, whom we have always struggled to keep on board. This, in turn, also reduces the potential variety and experience of councillors.”

Westmorland and Furness Council have recently announced they will be conducting a full community governance review of all town and parish councils across Westmorland and Furness Council following the conclusion of the Local Government Boundary Commission review of Westmorland and Furness.

The community governance review could see changes to the town council including the creation of new separate parish councils for areas of the town such as Castletown or Carleton.

There are also renewed calls for properties between the A66 and River Eamont to be moved out of the parish or Penrith and join the Yanwath and Eamont parish council area with the rest of the Eamont Bridge village.

Currently these properties although in Eamont Bridge are part of the Penrith South and Penrith Pategill wards for the town council.

Beyond the council area that  the properties find themselves in they also face a monetary cost difference with a Band D property in Eamont Bridge paying in the current year 2020/25 a council tax bill of £2256.95 and properties on the the Penrith Town council side of the river Eamont are paying £2,314.97 representing an additional cost from the town council precept of £58.02 for around 30 properties in Eamont Bridge that find themselves on the north side of the river Eamont and paying their precept to Penrith Town Council.

The Boundry line that divides the village dates back decades when the river Eamont was the boundary between the old counties of Westmorland and Cumberland that Penrith was located in.

Until 2015 the parish of Penrith had no town council, so households paid no parish precept but since 2015 the precept for the town council has risen from £23.59 in the councils first year in 2015 to its current £83 for a Band D household with a Band D property South of the river Eamont in the village paying just £25.90 for a Band D precept.