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CRUMBRIA: 2.03.2026

THE £155,000-a-year chief executive of the costly new bureaucracy being assembled around Cumbria’s incoming Mayor has been courting the local rags.

John Barradell, of the new Cumbria Combined Authority, was given the kid-gloves treatment by the News & Shrug, Carlisle, in a story shared with its sister title, the Evening Snail, Barrovia. (Full transcript at the bottom of this page).

Massive questions were ducked by the reporter. Why is Barradell’s salary so high? What will be the cost of this thick new layer of bureaucracy?

How much will our Council Tax go up? Why is Cumbria having a Mayor foisted on it by elected politicians when residents, parish councils and town councils said no?

Barradell will be the real power behind the Mayoral throne despite the illusion of ‘democracy’.

He insisted: “The public will have their say” next year.

The trouble is, they already did. In last year’s public consultation, close to 60% rejected the idea — an unfortunate verdict quietly forgotten by our media and two Councils, who steamrollered ahead.

In the face of public opposition, Cllr Jonathan Brook, Lib Dem leader of Wokemoreland & Farcical Council, and Cllr Mark Fryer, Labour leader of Crumberland Council, embraced an elected Mayor; probably believing their political parties would win the race.

What chance that their bullish insistence backfires at the ballot box with a Reform victory next year?

Barradell, meanwhile, will be at the end of a multi-million cash pipeline running from Westminster to Crumbria.

But it’s also a licence to burn money by building costly bureaucratic fiefdoms, which is what Crumbria’s politicians and its public sector executive class do best of all.

Expect all staff of the Crumbria Combined Authority to be on silly money and massive public pensions while proposing big increases in your Council Tax bills.

And why anyone in the public sector in Crumbria should be trusted with £333 million of cash when the two Councils struggle to balance their own books remains an utter mystery to the Chronic.

That Barradell chose this moment to rear his head in print may or may not be related to the arrival in Crumbria of Essex girl, Emily Woolfe. She’s the former hackette on the local rags here and now the authority’s new ‘communications’ chief, who has been lured back north on a £60k-a-year salary.

Revisiting the subject of the Crumbria Combined Authority, the ultra-cautious weakly snoozepaper, the Slumberland & Westmoreland Imperilled in Penrith, ignored the fact that the Taxpaying public here is sick to the back teeth of endless local government restructures.

“What does it all mean?” the alleged “newspaper” asked itself of the latest elite power-grab in its ever-so-careful comment section.

£333m a year over 30 years sounds like a lot of money, so maybe it’ll all be fine, was its unconvincing conclusion.

ENDS.

THE COST OF MAYORS AND COMBINED AUTHORITIES

It’s worthwhile checking out some of the ridiculous sums involved in Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs), of which there are already 13 around the country.

The figures below are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough MCA paid its Labour Mayor £92,000 a year in allowances and expenses. The Chief Executive and directors trousered £1.3m.

Overall, it had 43 employees requiring pay & cushy pensions (employer’s contribution 15.9%). It also shelled out £278,000 in Exit Packages for just TWO employees.

Greater Manchester MCA pays Labour Mayor Andy Burnham circa £115,000. It paid out £3.9m in exit packages in 2022-23.

It’s planning to hike Council Tax bills for, among other reasons, “inflationary pay pressures!” It has circa 20 committees.

They include the Joint Clean Air Scrutiny Committee, the Air Quality Administration Committee and the Clean Air Charging Authorities Committee.

(There doesn’t appear to be a Hot Air Committee. Maybe there should be!)

East Midlands MCA pays its chief exec £185,000 – nearly double that of the actual Mayor, Labour’s Claire Ward, who is paid £93,000. There are EIGHT other directors paid up to £148,000 a year, including an Interim Director of Communications (PR Spinner). East Midlands MCA also has NINE committees – including the Appointments Panel, Business Advisory Board, Innovation Advisory Board and Investment Committee.

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READ MORE: Cumbria says “no” to Mayor

READ MORE: Don’t trust Mayoral hype

READ MORE: Cumbria’s Gravy Train Mayor

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The full interview that Scroogequest hid behind a paywall. (So much for open democracy…)

How Cumbria’s Mayoral Elections will work in 2027

THE Chief Executive of the new Cumbria Combined Authority (CCA) has given an insight into how the forthcoming mayoral election could look.

John Barradell OBE has been recommended for the role of Interim CEO at the new strategic authority and his appointment will be confirmed at its first meeting on March 18. CCA will lead on regenerations projects, driving economic growth into the area and delivering job creation initiatives.

Strategic authorities are hailed as providing a strong voice for a region, drawing at least £333 million of long-term investment and greater powers of decision-making from Whitehall. And from 2027, it will be headed-up by a Mayor of Cumbria, who will then take on the powers currently enacted by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners.

The same responsibilities for the fire service are likely to be delivered by a Deputy Mayor, appointed by the successful candidate. Giving an insight into how the mayoral election will work, Mr Barradell told the News & Star that “the public have their say, don’t forget.

“The technical piece is it’s a single transferable vote system, which means the majority of people who vote will vote for the mayor, so it’s 50 per cent plus one to win, of those who vote

Voters will not make a single selection as in a General Election; they will instead give a first and second preference. Mr Barradell said: “And then, you basically knock out the bottom and you redistribute the votes to their second preference and you keep doing that until someone’s got 50 per cent plus one.

“So you continually knock the bottom ones out until you get the straight run off between two or three people. Whoever that is, will have a mandate.” It will be an election night that will shape the political landscape across Cumbria as three types of votes will be taking place on one night.

Mr Barradell said: “There’ll be one that will be single selection, for your council election, and then you’ll have parish councils everywhere where you might have three, four or five votes.”

He admitted it will be a logistical challenge to coordinate voting for each level of Cumbria’s local government in one night. Leader of Cumberland Council Mark Fryer and Leader of Westmorland and Furness Council Jonathan Brook are currently leading CCA in the period before the election of a mayor.

During that interim period, they are each representing the whole of Cumbria on the CCA board. The first meetings of the authority will see a prospectus of work brought forward, which it will deliver, including adult education and a plan to make the most of Cumbria’s involvement in the Tour De France.

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