AS a new dawn breaks this morning on local government in the county, Cumberland Council Leader Mark Fryer has spoken about the birth of the new authority.

The new authority will take over from the existing councils of Cumbria County Council, Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and Carlisle City Council from today, April 1.

Speaking about the takeover, he said: “It feels sort of like we won the FA Cup and it’s been sitting there with the red ribbons on it and we haven’t been able to pick it up.

"But we have put a lot of work in and it isn’t like we are glorying in it or anything, because this is a business operation that we need to deliver for the people of Cumberland and our intent is to do the best we can.”

The leader looked at the ‘opportunities’ on offer to the council in the first 100 days. He said: “We must build a culture for our organisation, for our staff, we have always said that they are at the heart of everything we do.

“I think certainly the big challenges are always picking up organisations that have been defunded over a long period of time. Certainly adult social care and children’s services are two huge operations that probably take up 75 per cent of our budgets so that’s huge.

"The other one is highways; people are not happy with state of some of the roads.

“We have got to look at the services and different ways of delivery, being smarter, working with others and making sure we deliver on our promises of delivering top class services.

“The public have been great, walking through the streets they are happy for us. People who know me personally know that we won’t shirk from the effort, for those who are on the side lines criticising perhaps they should've stood.”

The leader will be supported by deputy’s Emma Williamson and Lisa Brown as well as 46 other Cumberland councillors from different political parties.

Speaking about what Cllr Williamson and Cllr Brown bring, he said: “Drive, energy, different thoughts, different views, loyalty and an ambition, an ambition for change as have many of the councillors on all political sides.

"There is a feeling of, 'come on, lets have a go at trying to change things here'.

"We put the offer out to go through the budgets lines by line with all other political groups. That offer is there and we will be setting that up, there is nothing to hide.

“There is a stark reality in life that we have only got a certain amount of money and we haven’t got a money tree.”

Addressing the people of Cumberland on day one he said: “Thank you, thank you for your patience, thank you for putting your trust in us and again across the political spectrum. Not just the Labour party but others as well.

“We don’t intend to let you down.”

Asked if he was looking forward to the challenge, Councillor Fryer said: “Unbelievably so, I just can’t wait so that we can get in there starting to work with people, working with the third sector, working with our communities and more importantly working with our staff who know what the solutions are.”