Westmorland and Furness Councils backtrack on plans to impose a legally binding compact agreement upon town and parish councils within the district. This decision came during a cabinet meeting held at Barrow Town Hall today (Tuesday 17th October), where the the controversial compact agreement was placed under scrutiny.
The proposed compact agreement aimed to establish a legal framework for collaboration between Westmorland and Furness Councils, the Cumbria Association of Local Councils (CALC), and the 107 Parish and 9 Town councils in the Westmorland and Furness council district.
The controversy it emerged was the fact that none of the town and parish councils had been privy to the content of the compact agreement, nor had they been part of its formulation beyond an online survey with only 49 responses last year and an informal zoom meeting in January when the new council was still only a Shadow authority. The compact had been orchestrated by Westmorland and Furness Councils and CALC who it emerged would gain seats on the Westmorland and Furness Councils three locality boards and had in April received around £30,000 from Westmorland and Furness Council.
During the cabinet meeting, Councillor Jonathan Davies, the chair of Clifton Community Council, a member of Sockbridge & Tirril Parish Council, and a former Penrith Town Councillor, raised concerns about the legal obligations the document sought to impose on town and parish councils.
He vehemently asserted that CALC lacked the legal authority or mandate to bind any town and parish council to a legally binding agreement. Furthermore, he stressed that Westmorland and Furness Councils had no unilateral powers to impose such legal agreements on sovereign town or parish councils without their direct involvement in the creation and approval of any such agreement. He underlined the importance of each council being legally responsible for approving any binding agreements that may affect them individually through a resolution of each council.
In response to Councillor Davies statement, Westmorland and Furness Council leader, Councillor Jonathan Brook, agreed to amend the proposal, removing the recommendation for a legally binding compact and replacing it with an outline framework for councils to utilise and build upon. This change removed any legal obligations that had initially been proposed to bind the town and parish councils to the compact they had not seen or agreed to.
On voting on the item, cabinet members voted in favour of the new compact as an outline framework, without the legal obligations initially looming over town and parish councils.
Speaking after the meeting Cllr Davies said “I am relieved that the Cabinet agreed with the situation and the removal of the legal obligations makes the compact a very different document in nature from what it was originally destined to be at the start of today's meeting.
The decision today underscores the importance of scrutiny and accountability while highlighting the need to build on positive collaborative and cooperative efforts between local government bodies while respecting the individual sovereignty of each town and parish council involved and the new Westmorland and Furness Council as the new district council.”
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