CRUMBRIA: 15.3.2026: EXCLUSIVE
THE new bureaucratic empire being built in Cumbria ahead of next year’s incoming Mayor will spaff £3.7m on mouse clickers, the Chronic can exclusively reveal.
The new Crumbria Combined Authority opens the trough for the first time tomorrow and documents show it will also need a whopping £11.2m to run itself in 2026/27.
From a staffing point of view, the Gravy Train will require:
- £1.5m for former Enterprising Cumbria staff
- £1.2m on corporate staff
- £703,000 on service lead and policy staff
- £296,000 on project delivery/project management staff
- Half-a-million to pay for next year’s Mayoral election
- The salary for Mayor and Deputy Mayor has not yet been set
- A panel of wonks (expenses for their time) will decide it!
- Two new committees requiring dozens of councillors
- Also being set up are one group, one panel, and two boards!
In April last year, in our story headlined “Mayoral Gravy Train On The Move”, the Chronic warned you of the VULGAR annual costs of keeping these new Gravy Trains on the rails.
As we wrote back then:
“Mayors and devolution in Cumbria means high pay and generous pensions; plush offices stuffed with bloated teams of over-paid directors; legal wonks; HR droids; pen-pushers; cushion plumpers; facilitators; administrators; note-takers and non-jobbers.“
Remember! This is the huge new political bureaucracy that nearly 60% of Cumbrians told politicians they didn’t want in a public consultation last year (results at the bottom of this page).
Yet Labour-daft Crumberland Council and the Lib-Dem dictatorship in charge of Wokemoreland Council PRESSED AHEAD anyway.
They want their political parties closely associated with doling out millions of pounds on Cumbrian projects using money from Whitehall.
It’s why all the parties are jostling to get their candidate elected as Mayor.
The new Crumbria Combined Gravy Train Board meets for the first time tomorrow.
Sharing the steering wheel will be Cllr Jonathan Brook, (Lib Dem), of Wokemoreland & Farcical, and Cllr Mark Fryer, (Labour), of Crumberland Council – the good cop/bad cop routine.
Shovelling the coal will be John Barradell OBE, the ‘interim’ new chief executive of Crumbria Combined Authority. He was previously a public sector big shot in Westminster and Brighton and doesn’t come cheap.
He’ll struggle by on circa £155,000 a year. He gets the job permanently at tomorrow’s meeting.
He’ll be supported, naturally, by a newly-appointed Spin Doctor on upto £60k-a-year.
Former Newsquest hackette, Emily Woolfe, has been recruited to handle comms and reputational management.
That’s public sector code for spinning the local rags, tv and radio, to ensure a blizzard of untroublesome headlines, of which she is more than over qualified.
The agenda and reports for tomorrow’s meeting are a word salad running to more than 380-pages of A4!
While you’re working – they’re talking.
Don’t forget that the new Mayor, who will be elected in May 2027, will eventually add ANOTHER line to your annual Council Tax bills to pay for their prowess.
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READ MORE: CUMBRIA’S GRAVY TRAIN MAYOR
READ MORE: CUMBRIA SAYS ‘NO’ TO MAYOR
READ MORE: CUMBRIA MAYORAL VOTE CANCELLED BUT WHY?
READ MORE: £155K MAYOR MAN MEETS MEDIA
READ MORE: BIG BACKLASH TO LABOUR MAYOR
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The tell-tale public consultation results
These results are from the 1,200+ members of the public who took part, and the four parish councils and two town councils which bothered to fill in last year’s Government questionnaire.
Q1: To what extent do you agree or disagree that establishing a Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) will deliver benefits to the area?
Public: 58% disagree. Parish councils: 100% disagree.
Q2: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposed governance arrangements for the MCA?
Public: 59% disagree. Parish councils: 75% disagree.
Q3: To what extent do you agree or disagree that an MCA will support the economy of the area?
Public: 56% disagree. Parish councils: 75% disagree.
Q4: To what extent do you agree or disagree that an MCA will improve social outcomes in the area?
Public: 57% disagree. Parish councils: 50% disagree.
Q5: To what extent do you agree or disagree that an MCA will improve local government services in the area?
Public: 61% disagree. Parish councils: 75% disagree.
Q6: To what extent do you agree or disagree that an MCA will improve the local natural environment and overall national environment?
Public 63% disagree. Parish councils: 100%.
Q7: To what extent do you agree or disagree that an MCA will support the interests and needs of local communities and reflect local identities?
Public: 63% disagree. Parish councils: 100%.
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