Cumberland Council

Cumberland Council is the local authority for Cumberland, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. The council has been under Labour majority control since its creation 2023. Full council meetings are usually held at Carlisle Civic Centre and the main offices are at Cumbria House in Carlisle. The council is a constituent member of Cumbria Combined Authority.

The modern district of Cumberland and its council were created in 2023. The district covers the combined area of the former districts of Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland. The new council also took on the functions of the abolished Cumbria County Council in the area. Legally, Cumberland is both a non-metropolitan district and a non-metropolitan county, but there is no separate county council; instead the district council also performs county council functions, making it a unitary authority. For the purposes of lieutenancy and shrievalty, Cumberland remains part of the ceremonial county of Cumbria.

The district takes its name from the historic county of Cumberland, and covers about 77% of the area of the old county as it was prior to the 1974 reforms which had created the new county of Cumbria. In the 1974 reforms, Penrith, the Penrith Rural District and the Alston with Garrigill Rural District from Cumberland had been included in the Eden District, which became part of Westmorland and Furness in the 2023 reforms.

The inaugural election to the new council was held on 5 May 2022. It initially operated as a shadow authority alongside the area's outgoing authorities until 1 April 2023, when the new district and its council formally came into being.

Cumberland Council provides both district-level and county-level functions. Most of its area is also covered by civil parishes, which form an additional tier of local government for their areas. The only exception is Carlisle, which is unparished; the Cumberland councillors for the city serve as charter trustees instead of it having a parish council.

Much of the south of the district lies within the Lake District National Park. In that area, town planning is the responsibility of the Lake District National Park Authority. Cumberland Council appoints four of its councillors to serve on the 20-person National Park Authority.

The council is one of two constituent members of the mayoral Cumbria Combined Authority, along with Westmorland and Furness Council.

The council has been under Labour majority control since its creation.