Garden village proposal recommended by council

A local plan which could lead to the creation of a new garden village with 10,000 homes has been agreed as recommended by a council.

The St Cuthbert's Garden Village Local Plan was approved by Cumberland Council and will now be put to public consultation.

The development, south of Carlisle, is expected to take between 30 and 40 years to deliver and is the largest such project north of Manchester.

If given the go-ahead, the village would be the size of Penrith and would include commercial, retail and employment space as well as five new primary schools and a secondary school.

The idea of a garden village was originally proposed in 2015 by the former Carlisle City Council, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The development would be spread over the four villages of Durdar, Blackwell, Carleton and Cummersdale, the plan states.

It would see homes built for approximately 20,500 new residents and provide 7,000 direct new jobs.

A new major link road, the Caldew Crossing, is currently under construction by the local authority with the hope of paving the way for the garden village.

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