CRUMBRIA: 24.7.2026
A NEW report by Wokemoreland Clowncil has baffled the Chronic.
Council officers have projected that the Westmorland & Furness electorate will increase by 8,253 people by 2031.
That’s a rise of almost 5% across an area more used to saying goodnight to old Grandad than hello to new baby.
Adding to the intrigue, the Council does not explain how it arrived at its unusual numbers.
It casually predicts that the W&F electorate will rise from 176,469 in 2024 to 184,722 by 2031.
Under the projections, 39% of the places that it listed would gain electors, while the remaining 61% would stay the same.
And not a single area in W&F is projected to see its population figure fall in the next five years.
Which strikes us as highly unusual, doctor.
According to the Chronic’s calculations, the top 30 areas seeing the biggest rises in people, are as follows:
The Chronic initially wondered whether the increases represented plans to lower the voting age to include 16 and 17-year-olds?
More voters means a larger electorate, Einstein.
But that does not stack up neatly. Some areas see their electorate figure frozen at their 2024 figure and not changing at all in the next five years.
Somehow, W&F has managed to discover 8,253 additional electors without explaining where they’re coming from to us mere plebs.
Perhaps they reflect people moving in to take up work — or retiring to the country after collecting the gold clock.
Before readers start foaming at the mouth and heading down the nearest rabbit hole, these figures cannot all be attributed to our newly arrived heavily-bearded brethren off the boats.
The Chronic is far from an expert in these matters, but they cannot all be new housing estates.
Can they?
At roughly two electors to every new home and not including any children, that would mean somewhere in the region of 4,000 additional properties across W&F.
(That’s a lot of new Council Tax pouring into the Town Hall!)
And can the Council safely count housing developments that have not yet been built — or planning applications it has not even passed?
Readers with access to the Council’s ‘special calculator’ may wish to get in touch.
***
Share
Follow the Chronic
The relevant pages are nine to 18 in the file below.
Source: W&F Council Community Governance Review.
Discover more from thecumbriachronic.co.uk
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
thecumbriachronic.co.uk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.