MAYORAL GRAVY TRAIN’S EASY RIDE

CRUMBRIA: 19.3.2026

CRUMBRIA’S new £11.2m Mayor’s Office will not need its new spin doctor on £60,000-a-year.

The job of selling it will just require local Churnalists with holes to fill and politicians wanting a cushy number on it.

Yesterday it was the turn of tanking tabloid, the News & Shrug, Carlisle, to sprinkle sugar on the grand launch in Penrith of the Crumbria Combined Gravy Train.

The alleged newspaper tuned in online to the first meeting and then wrote it up in unquestioning terms – because reporters didn’t attend to ask any!

Welcome to “trusted, local journalism,” Scroogequest newspaper-style.

“It’s hoped the future is bright!” the doomed daily paper cooed as it quoted the councillors clamping down on Cumbria’s newest Public Sector teet.

Not once did so-called hacks pause to ask whether a new board, new directors and a new logo might look suspiciously like another layer of taxpayer-funded bureaucracy – that you’ll have to pay for.

The News & Shrug also managed to totally ignore the £155,000-a-year chief executive and £3.7m annual wage/pensions bill.)

The message to the public was: the new Mayor’s office will do “pretty special things.”

That quote came directly from the mouths of the same old Councillors now in charge of it.

As the Chronic has noted before, the county’s media has been doing a PR campaign on pushing a Cumbria Mayor.

Perhaps Scroogequest advertising execs fancy getting their mitts on the juicy budgets that will flow from the Mayor’s office?

In essence, what happened yesterday is that the county’s political elite gathered to appoint itself, applaud itself, hand each other new titles and then reassure the local rags that this latest bureaucracy is not actually a bureaucracy at all.

Meanwhile, Mike Starkie, the Conservative candidate for the Mayor of Cumbria, has weighed in with the same message.

In his weekly column for the West Cumbrian comics (below), Starkie reports that he went to Westminster and was thrilled to find that everyone agreed with each other about how great a Mayor of Cumbria will be.

As for the small matter that nearly 60% of the Cumbrian public told a public consultation that they DON’T want one, Mr Starkie continues that fine Tory tradition of not actually listening to the electorate.

Amazing coincidence that the chap so dazzled by Cumbria’s newest Gravy Train is standing on the platform wanting to drive it.

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READ MORE: The News & Shrug: Inaugural meeting of Cumbria Combined Authority held.

WATCH THE MEETING (strong sedatives required): The Trough Opens!

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The Mike Starkie brochure version in full…

**Tory Mayoral candidate, Mike Starkie**

I recently attended Cumbria Day in Parliament; an event organised by Enterprising Cumbria.

All the Cumbrian MPs were in attendance along with the council leaders from Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness and business leaders from right across the Cumbrian economy representing businesses large and small from all sectors.

I was delighted to see and hear the widespread enthusiasm for the launch of the Cumbria Combined Authority and that Cumbria is finally going to have what I have advocated for over a decade, a mayor led devolved authority with the election of Cumbria’s first Mayor set to take place in May 2027.

The Cumbrian business leaders are and have been for years both fully supportive and fully aware of the potential benefits of having a Mayoral Combined Authority and the opportunities and investment that could be delivered through it.

Reading through a lot of social media it is though clear that there is a lot of scepticism among some of the public.

Although judging by the fact only about 1% of the voting population participated in the consultation which is often quoted as proof residents are against the changes, when what it does in fact suggest, is that most residents have not engaged, largely I think due to a lack of information that has led to speculation and misinformation.

There has been a lack of a clearly articulated message to address concerns and set out the benefits.

Some key points worth understanding are that 80% of residents of the North of England already live in areas served by an MCA.

The local government reorganisation that created two unitary councils that deliver our services was done in preparation for the MCA.

The two councils are not being put back together; they will continue to deliver all the services for which they are currently responsible.

The MCA powers will be devolved from Central Government and will play a strategic role, focussed on economic growth, transport and infrastructure.

It is not going to create more bureaucracy or additional tiers, local government reorganisation got rid of the two-tier County/District model replaced by a Unitary councils responsible for all services.

We have also seen because of Local Government Reorganisation a reduction in the number of councillors in Cumbria from a mind boggling 368 in 2015 to 111 today.

The formation of the Cumbria Combined Authority is not another layer, it replaces Enterprising Cumbria which is the most recent incarnation of the Cumbria LEP and before that the Regional Development agency.

Enterprising Cumbria along with the Police Fire and Crime Commissioner and their back offices will be absorbed into a streamlined Combined Authority which will be led by a mayor, elected by the residents of Cumbria and accountable to them.

The reality is most of the electorate would hardly be aware of the RDA, LEP or Enterprising Cumbria never mind hold them to account.

Cumbria could and should have become a Mayoral Combined Authority in 2017 when we had the opportunity to be pioneers and lead the way, the decision by Labour and Lib Dem councillors to block it has cost the County hundreds of millions of pounds of badly needed investment and the deal now is not as good as it was then.

It is though the right thing to do for Cumbria and now even most of our Labour and Lib Dem councillors have finally seen the light.

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