Cockermouth is a great little town – special to us all in different ways.

  • What do you value about Cockermouth?
  • How do you see the Cockermouth of the future?

Throughout 2026, a small group of people, supported by the Town Council and ACTion with Communities in Cumbria, will be starting conversations, and gathering ideas, about what people in Cockermouth care about most and how we can all work together to make sure that, into the future, the town continues to be a place that we are all proud of. We’re using the framework of a Community-Led Plan.

We’re inviting everyone who lives, or works, or comes regularly into Cockermouth to tell us…

  • what you love about Cockermouth and would like to hold onto or see more of
  • what you feel the town lacks and how you think we could develop it, and
  • how you would like to help make it happen.

Photos courtesy of Red Raven Design (redrawn.net), Cockermouth & District Agricultural Society (cockermouthshow.co.uk) and Cockermouth Titans

PROGRESS SO FAR

We started our plan process in early March 2026 by engaging with primary schools in Cockermouth and neighbouring parishes and with Cockermouth School, Working with a community artist they expressed their ideas on four themes of:

• Getting Around

• Living Here

• Our Environment

• Work and Play

Their work was displayed at our Launch and Visioning Day on Saturday 21 March at the URC, where almost 200 visitors were able to share their hopes, concerns and ideas for the future of our town in different ways.

Then we ran a short online survey over the Easter holidays to reach people who hadn’t been able to get to the Visioning Day. Over 180 people took part. Over 300 secondary school pupils also completed a questionnaire about their views.

We have been analysing all these contributions and sorting them into themes, short and longer-term goals, easy wins and greater challenges – and identifying some actions which are already in progress, led by groups within our communities.

We are sharing the results of all that work and asking for further input at various town events during the rest of the year – the Cockermouth Town Council Family Fun Day and Dog Show in June, the Cockermouth Show in August, Taste Cockermouth Food Festival in September and the Christmas Lights Switch-on in November.

We’ve had some great conversations so far at the Fun Day and Cockermouth Show – with 120 more surveys filled out, and lots of children drawing their ‘favourite things about Cockermouth’ for us, too.

COMING UP NEXT……

TASTE COCKERMOUTH FOOD FESTIVAL

Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, Main Street, Cockermouth

Come and find us in the Festival Info Point on Main Street, at the bottom of Station Street (facing Market Place), to find out what we’ve heard so far, share your own ideas and help us prioritise our next steps.

We look forward to meeting you!

If you’d like to stay in touch or help out, please email cclp@cockermouth.org and we’ll add you to our mailing list.

NEXT STEPS

You can find a brief summary HERE

And a more detailed report on what we’ve been hearing so far HERE

You can share your views on what we have heard so far HERE.

And/or come and find us on the information stand during Taste Cockermouth weekend.

Across the Autumn we are going to hold a series of sessions to explore various themes further and to understand what action is already happening. We’ll post details soon.

WHAT IS A COMMUNITY-LED PLAN?

  • An action plan which sets out how local problems and issues can be tackled and what opportunities there are for the community and area.
  • The actions include things that our community can do on its own, and those which require partnership with local authorities or other agencies.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY-LED PLANNING?

  • Led, driven and resourced by grassroots action.
  • Run by volunteers, usually a mix of councillors and other local people.
  • Involving as many different voices from the local community as possible, in lots of different ways, including events, meetings and questionnaires

A process to create a Community-Led Plan that reflects all the views that have been expressed and has the support of the local community.

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

• Take our short survey about your hopes, concerns and ideas for the future of Cockermouth – it’s open until Friday 17 April – and let us know at the end if you would like to be kept in touch with the process as it goes along.

• Check back here for other opportunities to take part in the process. Groups can also submit their shared views and join conversations on particular themes. If you represent a particular group who would like to be involved, please get in touch on cclp@cockermouth.org

ANY MORE QUESTIONS?

Click here to download our frequently asked questions about how the plan process works, including about funding, timescale and implementation.

If you still have questions, please just get in touch on cclp@cockermouth.org and we’ll do our best to answer them.