Cllr Barbara Cannon – thecumbriachronic.co.uk

CRUMBRIA: 29.03.2026

CRUMBRIA’S two councils have spent a combined total of £36,370 on Amazon.

Crumberland Council and Wokemoreland & Farcical Council between them ran up 163 payment lines with the online retail giant in the space of a year.

Crumberland accounted for the lion’s share, spending £27,625 across 115 lines. Wokemoreland & Farcical Clowncil spent a more modest £8,744 across 48 lines.

That raises an obvious discrepancy. What exactly is Crumberland Council buying from Amazon in such volumes that its neighbouring council apparently manages without?

Crumberland’s spending was spread across 10 months and Wokemoreland’s across eight. The period was April 2024 to March 2025.

Even the office of Crumberland Council’s Assistant Chief Executive got a small piece of the action, with £319.74 charged through Amazon.

At Wokemoreland, meanwhile, the office of the Chief Executive and Assistant Chief Executive managed to run up £1,666.07.

On what, the public is none the wiser.

Councils do use Amazon Business accounts as a trade supplier for purchasing office supplies, IT accessories, stationery, small equipment and other odds and ends.

Still, it is fair to wonder how much of this money might otherwise have gone to local businesses rather than straight out of the county.

In December, Crumberland Council’s big financial fish, Labour councillor Barbara Cannon, was imploring residents in a Council press release to: “Shop local and support local businesses.”

Residents, evidently, are encouraged to do one thing. The Council another.

Amazon was recently slammed by unions for planning to cut 16,000 jobs. That must go down like a cup of cold sick with table thumpers at the Labour-daft authority.

At Wokemoreland Council, the Lib Dem-dictatorship has recently been attracting wall-to-wall positive PR for itself, after unveiling miraculous plans to “bring long-term empty shops back into use!”

Spending more with them would definitely help.

It could be time that one of our ‘trusted local newspapers’ takes up the campaign now that the Chronic has given them a head start on a sure-fire scoop?

After all, the group editor for Crumbria has been informing readers of the county’s comics that, when it comes to local democracy, her churnalists are our guardians of ‘transparency and accountability’.

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UPDATE: Between Apr 2025 and Feb this year, Crumberland Council went on to spend a further £27,723 on Amazon. That means it’s spent a grand total of £55,349 in nearly two years.

A stirring vote of confidence in Crumberland high street?

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