Access Keys:

How do you rate this information / service?

Find My Nearest
Enter your postcode to find services and information for your area on a map e.g. schools, libraries and GP surgery
Translate this web page

Wigton Press Release

Children have designs on Wigton Local Links centre

Wigton schoolchildren will have designs on the town’s new Community Office when it officially launches next week. 

As part of Local Democracy Week, which runs from 13 to 19 October, year six children from Thomlinson Junior School will take part in an art competition to mark the launch of the new Wigton Local Links facility, next to the Market Hall on Church Street, on Tuesday 14 October. 

Local Links is part of a joint scheme between Allerdale Borough Council and Cumbria County Council which aims to bring many council and other services into one convenient place for people.

The children will be asked how they think councils help them or their local area and then asked to draw or paint their ideas – which could include parks and playgrounds, schools, roads, recycling and street lighting – onto a large sheet of canvas. The best canvas could then be framed to hang in the Local Links building at a later date. 

Bill Lowther, Deputy Chairman of Innovia Films, based in Wigton, will join representatives of the two councils and Local Links partners to officially open the facility at 2.30pm

Allerdale Borough Council’s customer service team will be working in partnership with Cumbria County Council and the North Allerdale Partnership to offer members of the public the convenience of having all the services they need available under one roof.

With just one visit you can:

  • get information on council services and receive assistance with filling out forms
  • pay your council tax
  • pick up temporary residential car parking permitsthis external link will open in a new window and apply for a “blue badge” parking permit
  • report fly tippingthis external link will open in a new window and arrange refuse collectionsthis external link will open in a new window (including bulky items and appliance collections)
  • request help with pest controlthis external link will open in a new window (such as mice and rats) and report stray dogsthis external link will open in a new window and dog foulingthis external link will open in a new window
  • report faulty street lights and problems with roads.

Other groups, such as The Law Centre and Age Concern, will also be making regular visits to the Market Hall to offer people help and advice on a wide range of subjects.

Councillor David Wilson, Allerdale Borough Council’s Executive member with responsibility for Access to Services, said: “The Wigton Local Links office is a perfect case of working in partnership with others and sharing resources in the interests of serving the wider community. This scheme supports Allerdale Borough Council’s “Service Access and Delivery” objective, outlined in its current Corporate Improvement Plan for 2008 to 2011,to engage better with customers and provide high quality, accessible and efficient services which meet their needs.”

Councillor Barbara Cannon, Cumbria County Council’s acting portfolio holder for communities, said: “Local Links are a great example of joined up thinking in the public sector. We have worked closely with our partners to offer a single point of contact where people from Wigton and surrounding communities can access a range of services. I’m confident that the Wigton Local Links will quickly be seen as a valuable community resource in Allerdale.”

Anyone wishing to contact the new Local Links office by telephone should call 01900 702890.

ENDS