A councillor is hoping that Carlisle will add its name to list of councils across the country that are part of a campaign that aims to enshrine a 'Right to Food' in UK law.

Labour Carlisle City Councillor, Lisa Brown, will be putting forward a motion at next week's full council meeting calling for Carlisle City Council to support Right to Food Campaign.

The Right to Food campaign, launched by Fans Supporting Foodbanks, calls for a change in the law to make access to food a legal right for all in the UK.

"It's massively important [that Carlisle signs up], because it's not only a recognition that something needs to be done nationally. It's recognising that something needs to be done locally as well," said Cllr Brown.

"We've gone through this pandemic and some of the issues that were there before are still there now, but they have been made worse.

"There are a lot of people who are falling through the cracks and have fallen into food poverty when they were just about getting by.

"Something needs to be done at a national level to make sure that people can always eat."

Councils in Liverpool, Manchester, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Liverpool Combined Authority, Rotherham, Brighton and Hove, Haringey, St Helens, Newcastle, and Portsmouth have so far signed up the Right to Food campaign.

Cllr Brown added that it was important for people living in poverty to not only have access to food, but to "good food".

She said: "It's not just about making sure people have food at all costs, it's also about making sure that healthy food isn't more expensive or harder to get hold of.

"Whilst being active is really important, the fact that many families are in poverty is what leads to the obesity crisis and I don't think people make that connection.

"All of the running and gym memberships in the world aren't going to tackle that until the root causes, which is economic inequality are addressed."

Looking ahead to the full council meeting on Tuesday September 14, Cllr Brown, who is also the director of Carlisle Community Help, added: "I think the City Council should be as worried about this as the county would be and should look at the measures and try to help."

Conservative Carlisle City Councillor, Gareth Ellis, said: "We are all behind the voluntary help that foodbanks provide and we need it.

"What we should be doing and what we are doing is bringing better paying jobs to Carlisle.

"There are signs up in the city offering sign on bonuses for staff because they're so desperate for staff. We should be making sure the system helps people get into full time work.

"That's the way to alleviate any kind of food issue.

"There are an awful lot of voluntary organisations out there that do great work and they do help the gaps that are in the system and let's try and make those gaps a bit smaller.

"As portfolion holder for finance, I made £20,000 in the city available last year for half term to help plug gaps.

"[Labour] don't want to plug any gaps - they want to have a comprehensive new system on top of it and I just don't think that's the way to go.