Westmorland & Furness Council’s own Annual Plan says one thing. Their decision on Grisedale Croft says the opposite.
On 10–13 April, Westmorland and Furness Council finalised its Annual Plan for 2026/27. Eight days later, on 21 April, Cabinet voted to consult on closing Grisedale Croft, or downgrading it to a four- or five-bed home — a cut of up to 69% in capacity.
Reading the two documents together is striking. The Annual Plan commits the Council, this year, to:
- supporting adults “in the place they call home, with the people and things that matter most to them”
- providing intermediate care as part of its adult social care offer
- ensuring people receive support “while remaining connected to their communities”
- focusing on prevention and “reducing escalation of need, risk and demand”
- co-producing a new Adult Social Care Strategy with communities — a strategy that does not yet exist
The Cabinet decision on Grisedale Croft, taken eight days later, would do the opposite of every one of those commitments. It would also be made before the strategy that is meant to govern such decisions has even been written.
The Council’s own press release announcing the Cabinet decision on 21 April expressly cites the same vision — that “people live in a place they call home, with the people and things they love, in communities where they look out for one another.” Closing Alston Moor’s only care home, or downgrading it to four or five beds, does not deliver that vision. It removes it.
In the Annual Plan’s Foreword, the Leader of the Council also acknowledges that the Government’s recent funding changes have “removed rurality and remoteness adjustments,” leaving rural areas worse off. To respond to that by removing the most remote community’s only care home is not what the Annual Plan says the Council stands for.
Alston Moor Parish Council, which met in emergency session on Tuesday 28 April and unanimously ratified its formal position, has written to Cllr Patricia Bell, Cabinet Member for Adult Care, on this point. The Parish Council welcomes and applauds the Annual Plan — its commitments are exactly the right commitments for a council serving rural and remote communities. The concern is solely that the Cabinet decision on Grisedale Croft, taken within eight days of finalising the Plan, runs directly counter to it.
