CUMBRIA will not now welcome its first refugees until the New Year, it has been revealed.

Councillor Stewart Young, leader of Cumbria County Council, confirmed the delay on Thursday at a meeting of the authority's ruling cabinet in Carlisle.

The county was set to welcome 30 families selected from camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan before Christmas.

Now it has emerged that delays to the processing of refugees in camps has had a knock-on to their expected arrival in Cumbria.

Checks carried out by the United Nations refugee agency - the UNHCR - before refugees are allowed to be resettled include health and medical assessments.

Cllr Young told members of the cabinet: "Cumbria remains ready to receive its first refugees.

"In the last few days we have been informed that the clearance process by the UNHCR is taking longer than expected.

"The process they carry out to enable refugees to leave camps is taking longer than previously expected, so their arrival will not now be until the New Year."

Cllr Young said a "huge amount of work" had been done in Cumbria by local councils and partners, in readiness to take in refugees as part of a government scheme running across the country.

Refugees will be housed as families and accommodated in privately-rented accommodation, Cllr Young told his fellow councillors.

Exactly where the refugees will be located within the county is not yet known.