Latest News
May 2025 Update
Westmorland and Furness Council has launched the public consultation asking for feedback on the draft Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS), which will shape the future of nature recovery across Cumbria.
Westmorland and Furness Council and the Supporting Authorities (Cumberland Council, Lake District National Park Authority, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and Natural England) are now inviting residents, landowners, businesses, community groups, and anyone with an interest in nature recovery to have their say.
Feedback will be instrumental in shaping the final Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy, ensuring that it is collaboratively developed and incorporates valuable local knowledge and expertise to ensure that actions taken for nature recovery deliver the greatest possible positive impact for Cumbria and its unique environment.
The Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy Public Consultation will run for six weeks from Monday 12th May until Sunday 22nd June 2025. Further information can be found on the Public Consultation page.
February 2025 Update
Early 2025 marks a pivotal moment in the development of Cumbria's Local Nature Recovery Strategy. On the 21st January, we presented the pre-consultation draft LNRS to Westmorland and Furness Council Cabinet and Supporting Authorities (Cumberland Council, Lake District National Park Authority, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, and Natural England).
A 28-day pre-consultation period is mandated by Defra Regulations and Guidance, allowing these key organisations to review and formally lend their support to the draft strategy before we launch the public consultation. The team received support from four of the five authorities and are making amendments to address comments received from Natural England.
The LNRS team are aiming to launch the public consultation in mid-May, subject to approval from our Supporting Authorities. The consultation is a key part of the LNRS development process and will continue to build on the positive engagement activities that have taken place already. The team will be running an online consultation for anyone who wishes to have their say on the strategy, and will be hosting several drop-in sessions around Cumbria for you to be able to find out more about what the LNRS is, what it contains, and how to take part in the consultation.
The link to the online public consultation, and the locations of the drop-in sessions will be announced in the next newsletter and on the website as soon as the team have confirmation of the dates.
November 2024 Update
The LNRS team, along with independent facilitators 3KQ, hosted a series of workshops in October to share the first draft of our LNRS opportunity mapping. Each of the four workshops allowed attendees to test the maps as they would appear when published, and the team were able to gather everyone’s feedback on the presentation, functionality and accuracy of the draft maps.
Overall, the feedback was highly positive with the majority finding the maps easy to navigate, logical and well presented. However, there are some small areas for improvement, such as adjustments to some of the colours, the visibility of the layers, and future or ongoing projects that may impact the mapping.
CBDC are currently refining the maps based on feedback collected during these sessions. The LNRS team will make the maps available for viewing and testing again during public consultation in spring 2025.
We would like to give a big thank you to Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre (CBDC) for developing these maps to such a high standard in time for our workshops, all participants who shared their expertise, and to our volunteer facilitators who helped ensure each session ran smoothly!
July 2024 Update
Throughout June and July the team have been working hard to produce a set of draft measures for the Cumbria LNRS; these measures will link to the previously developed draft priorities and will be the practical actions needed to meet the priorities for nature in the county.
These draft measures were developed through a series of workshops in June hosted at Redhills, Penrith with over 100 people attending. The workshops were grouped according to National Character Areas in Cumbria to allow attendees to think more at a landscape scale, and the first list of draft measures has pulled all of the outcomes of the workshops together for Cumbria.
Please find a copy of the draft measures below. The team welcomes any feedback or comments which we encourage you to submit via email at Cumbria.LNRS@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
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May 2024 Update
The team have been focusing on the necessary work to establish the LNRS priorities for nature recovery in Cumbria. The LNRS priorities establish what the strategy is trying to achieve over the next three to ten years to aid in Cumbria’s nature recovery.
Since January, our habitat-themed groups have been reviewing various strategies, policies and data, extracting their priorities (or objectives), and compiling a long list of existing nature recovery priorities for Cumbria. The LNRS team then hosted six workshops between the 18th and 20th March to bring each group together, establish a long-term vision for each habitat theme, and identify a small number of targeted priorities using the long list created from the strategy review work.
After a review by the Steering Group, we now have an initial list of 26 draft priorities for habitats in Cumbria, which can be viewed by clicking the link below.
If you have any comments on these priorities and would like to provide feedback, please email us at Cumbria.LNRS@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk.
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March 2024 Update
Productive Workshops Kickstart Cumbria's Nature Recovery Strategy Priority and Vision Setting
This week marked a significant step forward in Cumbria's Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) as we held a series of successful workshops focused on different Cumbrian habitats. Over the past few months, our experts have been busy reviewing extensive data and evidence, creating a robust foundation to inform and guide discussions at these workshops.
Between March 18th and 20th, we brought together experts and representatives from various conservation bodies for dedicated sessions on:
- Woodlands
- Uplands
- Lowland Wetlands & Freshwater
- Coastal & Marine
- Grassland
- Improved Grassland, Forestry & Urban
These workshops served as a fantastic platform to discuss the long-term vision for Cumbria's natural environment and begin drafting key priorities for nature recovery.
We are incredibly grateful to the experts and conservation bodies who participated, their continued support is invaluable to the development of the LNRS.
This is just the beginning! We are committed to ensuring everyone has a chance to contribute. In the coming months, we will be hosting further workshops and engagement opportunities. Our goal is to unify Cumbria's voice for an approach to nature recovery where everyone has a role to play.
December 2023 Update
Preparation for the Cumbria LNRS is well underway. The team has been appointed since September and have already conducted a data audit with partners to ensure any available data has been recognised and can feed into the LNRS development. Work is also underway to finalise the governance structure and overall timelines for the project.
Additionally, the team have been working hard to establish all the varying groups needed to develop the strategy and engaging with stakeholders throughout the process. At the time of writing, all of the following groups have been set up and have either had their initial meeting or are due their first session in January 2024:
- Steering group.
- Stakeholder engagement group.
- Species.
- Spatial planning.
- Woodlands.
- Grasslands.
- Upland habitats.
- Lowland wetland and freshwater.
- Coastal and marine.
- Modified and urban habitats.
- People and nature.
We are also working with a wide range of partners to ensure the Cumbria LNRS will sit alongside neighbouring authorities, and so we have attended various sessions aimed at the north of England to strengthen our existing nature recovery links.
Contact details
Email us at Cumbria.LNRS@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk and we will add you to our contacts list to receive the latest newsletter updates.