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To: Eden District Council and their successor council Westmorland and Furness Council

Petition for a Community Governance Review of Penrith

We the undersigned call on Eden District Council and the successor council of Westmorland and Furness Council.

To conduct a community governance review of Penrith as the parish area served by Penrith Town Council and neighbouring parishes any changes of the governance review may have impact on and any changes the review approves be implemented at the May 2023 local parish elections.

The petition requests that the governance review gives a focus areas of the review be:

Penrith Parish Boundary - It is requested that a parish boundary review consider the change to the parish boundary to use the A66 as the southern boundary point and enable the properties North or the River Eamont to be placed in the Yanwath and Eamont parish council area and unite the community of Eamont Bridge under one parish council. Also that the review considers the Norther boundary point with a view to reducing the Penrith parish boundary to a point between J41 of the M6 and Stoney Beck roundabout as the northern boundary and enable the possible creating of a new Plumpton Parish council to the north.
To the West that the M6 forms the western Penrith Parish boundary, and the parish area west of the M6 currently is placed as part of the Catterlen Parish Council area. Penrith

Parish Wards - It is requested that the wards that currently make up the Penrith town council parish are be removed and all elected members be elected to serve the Penrith parish area

Penrith Town councillor numbers - It is requested that the number of councillors be reduced from 15 to 10 to serve in the single Penrith Parish ward area.

It is requested that if the governance review is concluded and a Community Governance Reorganisation Orders is issued under the provision made in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.

Changes be implemented to take effect at for the May 2023 local town and parish council elections if the review is concluded in time to implement changes.

Why is this important?

As Cumbria heads into changes to local government with the county and district councils replaced with the new Westmorland and Furness Unitary council.

A governance review will help place Penrith and neighbouring communities in a stronger place to represent the focused areas of the communities served as Cumbria head into the new local government structure as part of the Westmorland and Furness council area.

Parish Council across the country often find it hard to fill vacancies with people willing to become councillors in the volunteer capacity of the role.
Penrith Town council when created had 19 seats across its 6 wards this was reduced to 15 in 2019 after the council had a number of seats unfilled.
Since 2019 the council has had to fill vacant seats through co-option to the council and over the last year has seen at a number of meetings less than half of the 15 councillors attending meetings and some meetings forced to be cancelled due to insufficient councillors attending for the meeting to be quorate.

It is felt that a smaller more focused Penrith Town council were members are elected to represent all of Penrith rather than just the 6 wards will help make the council more representative and benefit Penrith as a whole while also becoming more agile and accountable to the community of Penrith.

Our call for a governance review is not inference of any negative views of the current town council but a view that the changes outlined will help make the council more agile and ready to take on the future for Penrith and work to Unlock the Potential of Penrith.

Penrith, UK

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Updates

2023-04-17 19:56:03 +0100

10 signatures reached