What do other Councils and agencies do?

There are quite a lot of Councils and other organisations in Cumbria which can be confusing, so we have summarised them below:

Westmorland and Furness Council

This is the Unitary Council for the Westmorland and Furness Area, formerly Cumbria County Council, South Lakeland District Council, Barrow Borough Council and Eden District Council. The Councils amalgamated to form Westmorland and Furness Council in April 2023. Cumberland Council are responsible for North Cumbria (Eden area).

Westmorland and Furness manage Highways as the Highways Authority (not to be confused with National Highways which manages the main ‘A’ roads including the A590), road maintenance including potholes, gritting, pavements, schools, social services, municipal waste, household refuse and recycling collections. Westmorland and Furness Council are also responsible for environmental health, economic development, planning, strategic housing, car parking and building control.

View their website: https://www.westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk/

National Highways (formerly Highways England)

Looks after all of the ‘A roads’ ( A590, A595 etc) including signage and grass cutting on the verges of these roads. The organisation operates, maintains and improves the strategic road network in England. This organisation can be easily confused with the Highways Authority, which is Westmorland and Furness Council. Westmorland and Furness Council deal with non strategic roads and pavements, for example in Ulverston the National Highways will deal with the A590, but the Highways Authority will deal with everything else!
www.nationalhighways.co.uk

South Lakes Housing

This independent organisation looks after former ‘Council houses,’ including tenants, home maintenance etc.
Contact: 0300 303 8540 or 01229 587 147
customerservices@southlakeshousing.co.uk