The Borough of Copeland is a

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

with

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

status in western

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Its council is based in

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It i ...

. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Borough of

, Ennerdale Rural District and Millom Rural District. The population of the Non-Metropolitan district was 69,318 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 70,603 at the 2011 Census. The name is derived from an alternative name for the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic counties of England, historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th c ...

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of Allerdale above Derwent, which covered roughly the same area. There are different explanations for the name. According to a document issued at the time of the borough's grant of arms, the name is derived from ''kaupland'', meaning "bought land," referring to an area of the Forest bought from the estate of

St Bees Priory St Bees Priory is the parish church of St Bees, Cumbria, England. There is evidence for a pre-Norman religious site, and on this a Benedictine priory was founded by the first Norman Lord of Egremont William Meschin, and was dedicated by Archb ...

. In July 2021 the

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government i ...

announced that in April 2023, Cumbria will be reorganised into two

unitary authorities A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

. Copeland Borough Council is to be abolished and its functions transferred to a new authority, to be known as

, which will cover the current districts of

Allerdale Allerdale is a non-metropolitan district of Cumbria, England, with borough status. Its council is based in Workington and the borough has a population of 93,492 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 96,422 at the 2011 Census. The Bor ...

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

, and Copeland.

Demographics

In 2014 the borough of Copeland was found to have the fattest population in England with a percentage of 75.9% being either overweight or obese (BMI greater than 25) according to official PHE statistics. In 2018 Copeland had the third highest median income of UK local authorities, after the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

and

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...

. However this median hides the wide differences in income between those who work at the

Sellafield Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nuc ...

nuclear reprocessing site and elsewhere in the borough, leading to Copeland being described as 'a community of two-halves'.

Governance

Elections to the borough council are held every four years, with currently 51

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s being elected at each election. Since the first election in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

the council has been under Labour control, apart from between 1976 and 1979 when it was under no overall control. As of the 2019 election the council is composed of the following councillors:

Directly elected mayor

On 22 May 2014 a referendum was carried out in the borough to change the style of governance in Copeland to a directly elected mayor, after campaigners from the ''Time For Change'' team successfully obtained enough signatures from 5% of the electorate in a petition. The referendum result was: For: 12,671; Against: 5,489. The first election for mayor was held on 7 May 2015 and Mike Starkie (Independent),but now a conservative, was elected by 15,232 votes to the Labour Party candidate Steve Gibbon's 14,259 votes.

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Copeland. * Gary McKee: 21 October 2017.

Map

Notes

References

* Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (2008) ''Hodgson Saga'', second edition (Standon, Hertfordshire: Martlet Books). * Wainwright, F. T. (1975) ''Scandinavian England: Collected Papers'' (Chichester: Phillimore). * Winchester, Angus J. L. (1985) 'The Multiple Estate: A Framework for the Evolution of Settlement in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian Cumbria', in Baldwin, John R. and Whyte, Ian D. (eds) (1985) ''The Scandinavians in Cumbria'' (Edinburgh: The Scottish Society for Northern Studies), pp. 89–101.

External links

Copeland information website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Borough of Non-metropolitan districts of Cumbria 1974 establishments in England Boroughs in England