Last week I had the opportunity to attend a half day conference in Gretna, about the ‘Borderlands Place Plan’ programme. This is the programme, funding out of the Government’s Borderlands Growth Deal to invest money into 16 of the smaller towns across the border.

Each town has up to £3 million investment promised. In Cumberland Longtown is one of the three towns, alongside Egremont and Wigton.

The Conference was a chance to hear about the process involved in getting the money released by Borderlands, and some of the work that has already been done. Two of the towns who are a little bit further down the track from others gave presentations on their town plans (Stranraer and Penrith) which were really impressive.

In Longtown we have been developing a Place Plan since the workshops which were held for residents in the summer of 2022. The ideas that were had by the local community then have been worked into proper business cases and there will be public consultation late this Autumn (November/December) on the final proposals for Longtown. Cumberland Council want to submit all there place plans in our area to the Borderlands Board in the summer of 2025 to approve the investment.