What do other councils and agencies do?

There are quite a lot of councils and other organisations in Cumbria and it can be confusing, so hopefully this summary will help explain:

Cumbria County Council

This is the principle senior council in Cumbria. It manages Highways as the Highways Authority (not to be confused with the Highways Agency which manages the main ‘A’ roads), road maintenance, gritting, pavements, schools, social services, municipal waste (but not rubbish collection from houses).
betterhighways.southlakeland@cumbria.gov.uk or info@cumbria.gov.uk

South Lakeland District Council

It is the planning authority. It looks after environmental health, economic development, strategic planning, strategic housing, refuse collection, car parking, Windermere (Lake) and building control.
Contact: 0845 057 0080
www.southlakeland.gov.uk

Highways England (formerly the Highways Agency)

Looks after all of the ‘A roads’ ( A590, A595 etc) including signage and grass cutting on the verges of these roads. The Highways Agency became Highways England in April 2015. The organisation operates, maintains and improves the strategic road network in England. This organisation can be easily confused with the Highways Authority, which is the County Council. The County Council deal with non strategic roads and pavements. For example in Ulverston the Highways Agency will deal with the A590, but the Highways Authority will deal with everything else!
www.highways.gov.uk

South Lakes Housing

This independent organisation looks after all of SLDC’s former ‘council houses,’ including tenants, home maintenance etc.
Contact: 0845 057 0080
enquiries@southlakeshousing.co.uk