A MINISTER’S letter has confirmed the official beginning of a council shake-up and the abolition of “the county of Cumbria”.

A letter addressed to Cumbrian leaders and seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service confirms that local government reorganisation begins in the county today.

The Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities launched the process in 2021 asking council bosses how they envisaged the future of local government in Cumbria. The proposal selected by Government called for a two-county split.

It will now see the existing seven councils abolished by 2023 and replaced by Cumberland Council in the west and Westmorland & Furness Council in the east.

Carlisle, Allerdale and Copeland will form the new Cumberland Council. Westmorland and Furness will be comprised of Eden, South Lakeland and Barrow-in-Furness.

And in her letter to leaders yesterday, Levelling-Up minister Kemi Badenoch confirmed the process has begun.

She said: “I am writing to let you know that I have today made the Cumbria (Structural Changes) Order 2022; the Order comes into force tomorrow, March 18, 2022.

“The Order provides for the establishment of two new unitary councils for Cumbria – Cumberland, and Westmorland and Furness –  to deliver high quality sustainable local services across the county area along with effective leadership at both strategic and local levels.”

Elections on May 5 will appoint councillors to shadow authorities, who for one year will serve as the forerunner to the new authorities.

Whoever is appointed to the shadow authorities will take full control on vesting day, April 1 2023, when the existing councils are abolished.

But in her letter, Ms Badenoch also states: “On that date all the existing Cumbria councils will be wound up and dissolved and the six existing Cumbria districts and the county of Cumbria will be abolished.”

Cumbria County Council’s leader Stewart Young has previously raised concerns that this means the area will cease to exist in the same way Cumberland did in 1974.

Conservative leaders have denied this and said that Cumbria will continue to exist as a ceremonial boundary.

Once two new unitary councils are created in Cumbria local leaders will have the opportunity to bid for a combined authority.

This would mean appointing a Mayor of Cumbria with the same decision-making responsibilities as mayors in Greater Manchester and the North of Tyne.