Alston Moor Parish Council

GRISEDALE CROFT
📣 WEDNESDAY 3 JUNE. 11AM. ALSTON TOWN HALL. 📣
Westmorland and Furness Council are holding a drop-in as part of their consultation on Grisedale Croft. We want to fill that room and make absolutely clear how we feel about any closure or downgrade of our local care.

Come along — bring a neighbour, bring your story. A strong turnout sends a message that can't be ignored.
Alston Moor Parish Council — Grisedale Croft Working

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The Grisedale Croft consultation is now open — and your response matters.

Westmorland and Furness Council is asking the public what should happen to Grisedale Croft Care Home. The consultation runs until Wednesday 5 August 2026, and this is our community's chance to put our case clearly on the record.
Alston Moor Parish Council and local councillors have prepared a plain-English guide to help you respond — explaining what the options actually mean, which ones we think make sense for Alston, and what to write in the comments box.

The short version:
The council offers five options.

Our view:
Option 5 — a suitable local building is the only option worth supporting, and only if the replacement is in Alston itself, not just "the local area". If you tick this box, please say so clearly in the comments.
Option 4 — close with no alternative in Alston should be rejected outright.
Whatever option you choose, the most powerful thing you can add is your own experience — a friend or relative sent far away for care, a family unable to visit, a loved one who deserved better than a long journey at the end of their life. Real stories matter more than statistics.

How to respond:

Online: via the WFC consultation page (https://consult.westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk/adult-social-care/grisedale-croft/)
Paper form: available from Alston Library, Garrigill Post Office, and Nenthead Village Shop — or return via FREEPOST
Drop-in sessions at Alston Library and Garrigill Village Hall — dates in the leaflet

📄 Read our response guide: alstonmoorhealth.org
🔔 Stay updated — subscribe for news: alstonmoorhealth.org/get-involved
Download our Leaflet:https://alstonmoorhealth.org/resources/Grisedale-Croft-Have-Your-Say-Leaflet.pdf
Please share this post so it reaches everyone who cares about keeping local care on Alston Moor.
Prepared by Alston Moor Parish Council and local councillors — two campaigns, one community.

https://alstonmoorhealth.org/get-involved

Get Involved — Alston Moor Health A community archive of the campaigns to keep open Grisedale Croft and to secure the future of community healthcare on Alston Moor.

GRISEDALE CROFT: THE CONSULTATION IS NOW OPEN.

Westmorland and Furness Council launched its formal twelve-week consultation on the future of Grisedale Croft Care Home today. It closes on 5 August. That is our window.
We have published a full statement setting out what the Council's documents say — and what they leave out — at alstonmoorhealth.org

If you or your family have been affected — if someone you love needed care on Alston Moor and wasn't placed at Grisedale Croft — your account matters. Please share it, or find out how else to get involved, at alstonmoorhealth.org/get-involved

Drop-in sessions are coming to Alston, Nenthead and Garrigill over the coming weeks. Details on the website.

Alston Moor Parish Council — Grisedale Croft Working Group

Get Involved — Alston Moor Health A community archive of the campaigns to keep open Grisedale Croft and to secure the future of community healthcare on Alston Moor.

REPORT OF ALSTON MOOR PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
5 MAY 2026

This report is an informal one, and should not be taken as an accurate and agreed record of the parish council meeting. It is written to give our local residents some general information about the meeting, but only the formal minutes, which will be posted later, are a proper record.
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ANNUAL PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
The meeting started with the Annual Parish Council Meeting, when all rôles are elected or agreed.
• Councillor Raymond Miller was re-elected as Chair and Councillor Alix Martin as Vice-Chair.
• To ensure Nenthead representation, either Councillor Judith Crossley or the potential new Nenthead councillor (to be considered at the next parish council meeting) will join the Alston Moor Emergency Response Group and the Traffic Management Committee.
• Councillor Alastair Robertson will take over from Councillor Ron Robinson with responsibility for Tyne Willows.
• Councillor Elaine Grew is joining the Place Action Group

All policies are up-to-date and will go on the website.
The Council insurance is due in June and we expect to get the renewal notice seeon

The 2027 precept meeting will be held on 11 January.
The Annual Parish Meeting 2027 will be on 19 April.
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PARISH COUNCIL MEETING
We then moved on to the monthly parish council meeting. The minutes of the last meeting, on 7 April, were approved.

PLANNING
The owners of the Haggs Bank Bunkhouse at Nentsberry were present and invited to speak. They are totally frustrated with the failure of the planning department (both previously Eden District Council and more recently Westmorland and Furness Council) to respond effectively or provide any clear reasons why their application has not been approved. The parish council were unanimous in agreeing that we support the application and will let W&F know this.
New information had been received about the land off Park View Lane, Alston, that the drainage has been diverted.
The council approved the part-retrospective application for Bridge House at Garrigill.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CO-ORDINATOR
As the term for which funding for this rôle was given to Alston Moor Partnership by the Royal Countryside Fund will end in June, AMP have asked the parish council if there is a way to fund a temporary continuation of the rôle. It was generally agreed that it was important to find a way for it to continue, and possibilities will be looked into as a matter of urgency.

AGAR (Annual Governance and Accountability Return)
All is in place and ready to submit as soon as the final processes are gone through. Notification will be put on notice boards.

GRISEDALE CROFT
Westmorland and Furness Councillor Pat Bell, the Cabinet councillor responsible, has agreed to an informal online meeting with Cllr Martin and the Clerk. The W&F Annual Plan says the intention is to keep people close to home. Closing Grisedale Croft, as is being considered and intended to go out for consultation, would run counter to this. It also becomes clear that re-opening the hospital must be part of future plans.

The Alston Health website, (https://alstonmoorhealth.org) covering these issues and the past history, is to be publicised as an AMPC website, with links to the community and business websites. https://alstonmoordirectory.com

NENTHEAD WARD
Various issues raised are to go to W&F Highways.

FINANCE
Precept has now come in and is in full, as requested.
All payments for approval were agreed.

TYNE WILLOWS
Appleby Horse Fair is on 4 June. Melmerby Green is available for travellers from 1 June. We have requested that ther be no fires on the tarmac and to keep to the fencing arrangements.
We are negotiating with Hodgsons about boulders above the gym to prevent access onto the field across that mound.

NEXT MEETING
Monday 1 June 2026, 19.00 at Garrigill Village Hall.

Councillor Ron Robinson announced his resignation, owing to the endless unwarranted attacks on the parish council and his own ill health.

Alston Moor Directory Three directories, one community. Find local groups, events, businesses and services across Alston, Nenthead, Garrigill and the wider Moor.

Alston Moor Parish Council has launched a new website for the two healthcare campaigns: https://alstonmoorhealth.org/
You'll find the background to the situation at Grisedale Croft, the case for the future of the Ruth Lancaster James Cottage Hospital site, the latest news, the documents on the public record, and ways to get involved — including a mailing list for updates.

Please share with anyone who cares about how Alston Moor looks after its own.

Alston Moor Health — Campaigns for community healthcare A community archive of the campaigns to keep open Grisedale Croft and reopen Alston Cottage Hospital.

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.

You can find WFC Plan either on the Parish Council's website
https://alstonmoorparish.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/WFC-annual-plan.pdf

or on the Community Directory.
https://community.alstonmoordirectory.com/resources/33

Westmorland and Furness Council

Parish Council passes campaign resolutions on Grisedale Croft
https://alstonmoorparish.gov.uk/2026/04/28/parish-council-passes-campaign-resolutions-on-grisedale-croft/
Tuesday 28 April 2026
At an emergency meeting this evening, Alston Moor Parish Council unanimously passed all fourteen resolutions setting out its position and campaign in response to Westmorland and Furness Council's public consultation on the future of Grisedale Croft Care Home.
The Parish Council's position is clear. We oppose any closure of Grisedale Croft unless and until a legally-binding, fully-funded and operational alternative — providing equivalent residential, dementia, respite and re-ablement provision — is confirmed in advance and located within Alston Moor. Grisedale Croft is the last surviving element of the joint NHS-and-Council replacement package promised to this community in 2017–2018 when the inpatient beds at the Ruth Lancaster James Hospital were closed, and any decision on its future must be taken jointly with NHS partners.

The Council has established a Grisedale Croft Working Group whose task is to build the case for keeping the home open. The Working Group will be reviewing the information and evidence received in response to the formal Freedom of Information requests already submitted to Westmorland and Furness Council, the NHS bodies involved, and other relevant organisations, and will use that evidence to prepare the Parish Council's formal consultation response. A petition to Westmorland and Furness Council will follow shortly, and public meetings will be held in Alston, Garrigill and Nenthead during the consultation period.

Help us build the evidence base — please complete our online form

We are gathering evidence about people from Alston Moor and the surrounding area who, in recent years, have needed residential, nursing, respite or rehabilitation care but were not placed at Grisedale Croft. If this happened to a member of your family — or someone you know — please tell us about it using our short online form: https://forms.gle/cUqh6XVT6CxLSfSf6
Every response strengthens our case. The information will be held confidentially and used only in support of the Parish Council's consultation response.

A full Public Briefing setting out the background, the 2018 commitment, and the Council's response is attached to this notice on the Council website. Residents are warmly encouraged to read it, talk to their neighbours about it, and — most importantly — submit their own response to the consultation when it opens. Individual responses from residents matter enormously, and the Parish Council will be providing guidance on how to make them in the days ahead.

The public briefing document can be found on the Resource section of the Community Directory.
https://community.alstonmoordirectory.com/resources/32

The website notice: https://alstonmoorparish.gov.uk/2026/04/28/parish-council-passes-campaign-resolutions-on-grisedale-croft/

We will keep the Council website page updated as the campaign develops.

Thanks to Simon Danby for the image

📋 GRISEDALE CROFT — UPDATE FROM THE PARISH COUNCIL

Tuesday evening Alston Moor Parish Council is holding an emergency meeting in the Town Hall to formally ratify the actions we have already taken to protect Grisedale Croft Care Home, and to agree the steps ahead.

This is a council meeting — it is not a public meeting. Everyone is welcome to attend to find out what we are doing and have already done. We will keep you fully informed at every stage. Public meetings will be arranged as and when they are most useful to the campaign.

We have prepared a public briefing document which sets out the full picture — the history, the promises made when our hospital beds closed, what we have done so far, and how you can get involved. Copies will be available on the night and published on our website after that.

📝 ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

Were you, or a family member or friend, discharged from hospital to a care home outside Alston Moor — when you would have wanted to come home to Grisedale Croft? Were you ever even told it was an option? Did you or a family member need to go into Grisedale? And were you/they successful?

We are collecting this information and it matters enormously to our case. We need to know why the admissions have fallen so low. We don't believe it's because there isn't a need in the community.
Please fill in our short online form here:
👉 https://forms.gle/hYpgZsxpAXNVo9VDA

Or contact Parish Clerk Claire Thomson directly:
📍 Alston Town Hall 📞 01434 382076

EVERY story counts. EVERY voice matters. Westmorland and Furness Council (Cumbria County Council) made a formal commitment to this community in 2018. We intend to hold them to it.

More updates to follow. Watch this space. 💙

The Parish Council is holding an emergency council meeting to consider the news that Grisedale Croft's future is going to Consultation by Westmorland and Furness Council.

EMERGENCY Alston Moor Parish Council Meeting
which will be held at Alston Town Hall, on Tuesday: 28th April 2026 at 7.00pm.

This is a council meeting not a public meeting. However, members of the public are very welcome to attend.

AGENDA

Open meeting
Grisedale Croft.
Close Parish Council Meeting