From another article in the EN&S: "Mr Stevenson added: “I’d like to see the council more involved in economic development. They are a substantial property owner and could do more with that portfolio.”

So Jim, it seems that our conservative MP, Mr. Stevenson also thinks that your colleague is perhaps not doing enough with her economic development portfolio, something I have been saying repeatedly for many months on here. If you retain control of the council, and the alternatves aren't that great either, then a reshuffle is in order. As I have maintained, that particular portfolio holder is nigh on invisible and seems to have done very little of any note despite your protestations to the contrary in defence of your constituent. Perhaps a few more urban tories taking the reins instead of the city being led by a rural conservative elite?

James o, what is it you expect your council to do, faced with an empty shop owned by someone else?
Councils dont 'put' charity shops and cafes into empty buildings. How on earth do you think a Council would be able to do such a thing?
Some councils do own some buildings, and as landlords, like any other landlord they could do more to get tenants in. But, if they dont own the shop and dont run the catering business, what magical mythical powers do you think your omnipotent district and county councils have?

Should they have a vote at a council meeting?

"we the representatives of Whitehaven want the building owned by Joe Bloggs to be leased to the cafe owned by Mrs Miggins"

How would you feel if the council told you who, when and at what price to sell your house to?

The councils deserve what they get for their lack of ambition in bringing decent shops to the area it is easy to put a cafe and a charity shop in an empty building their has been no thought or effort in this thinking, if i walked down whitehaven high street i would come to the same descision,why would i give money to a council that has no interest in developing the town for the majority of its people and only seems to represent a chosen few.

Thanks for the substantive clarification, Jim; salient points well made.

Now, if you could get your constituent colleague to come up with a credible, workable, economic development master plan for the city centre...one which is intelligently thought out, imaginative and dynamic. Just the elements, few on the city council seem overly familiar with. One realises that you and she won't be needing to stand for election this cycle, so if the Tories stay in, she may still have the opportunity to shine.

No BM, its around local authority provided free parking. There are a few small towns around the country that provide free parking, but the above towns are not them, it is exceptionally rare.

The disk zone system overseen by Cumbria County Council is pretty well close to unique in offering free parking for one hour or two, of course this scheme operates all around the county, so workington, whitehaven and penrith are in the same boat as Carlisle.

The website above doesnt really show 'free parking', but odd strips of land that havent currently got parking enforcement on them. For example, because the double yellows have worn away.

On that basis Carlisle has about 8,000 free parking spaces around its main shopping area, of which about half are disk zone and half odd bits of road and street that dont have the correct or no enforcement on them.

The substantive point is that this situation is uncommon. It is unusual to get free parking in a central shopping area, even if limited to an hour or two. Some on this forum claimed that the reason for empty shops etc is because of the council (never sure which one) charging for parking.

If the magic to shopping success was free parking, the Lanes which is entirely independently managed would offer free parking.

When free parking has been offered for promotions etc, what happens is all the places are filled up by 8:30 with people who *work* in the central area, not by people shopping or tourists.

do away with mps expenses then they could do all high streets up.when i got a wage i had to pay for everything out of it so why dont mps they get a good wage for what they do

"Reading and Luton are not cities.

When you accuse someone of lying, its best to be accurate with your statistics."

That's just quibbling over a technicality, Jim. That website is pretty useless though as it lists no free parking in Carlisle but it does list some free parking in Sheffield for example, which is, I am given to believe, a "city". One hopes, Jim, that your statistical assertion regarding free parking isn't entirely dependent on the word "city".

It astounds me how short people's memories are. The reason we are in this mess is labour spent so long spending money like it was water and encouraging the never never culture. They have created an entire generation of people who think the answer to being unable to afford something is to borrow the money, regardless of whether they can pay it back. Worse still, those people are offended by the suggestion that they SHOULD pay it back.

Labour had an awful long time to prove they could do better, and instead they very nearly bankrupted the country and took us into 2 wars. For some strange reason I don't hold much stock in their opinion now!

You get what you vote for!, vote for more of the same and that's what you will get,change the way you vote or nothing will change.

Beware the Evans of March.

Reading and Luton are not cities.

When you accuse someone of lying, its best to be accurate with your statistics.