A councillor expressed her concern over a working group that consists only of Conservative councillors being chosen to oversee a review looking into the possibility of having a new parish council in Carlisle.

Carlisle City Council officially set up a working group of all three Stanwix Councillors to begin a review to consider whether to establish a separate parish council for Stanwix in Carlisle.

Stanwix resident, Brian Wernham started a petition to trigger the review, which reached it's goal of acquiring 330 signatures in August last year.

Carlisle City Councillor, Helen Davison said: "Given that we have got local government re-organisation going on, we are going to have less councillors and the council is effectively going to move further away from the people.

"Having local parish councils within our urban area is really important to improve local representation.

"My concerns with the process was that the whole working group is going to be just one party.

"I would question the representation within that.

"I would personally like to see a [new parish council] and it would be interesting to see if it does [happen] because I think there is a model potentially for other parts of our city as well.

"Having seen how councils work it is certainly something that I would like to see in my area as well.

It was announced in July this year that two unitary councils will be established - an east unitary council covering Barrow, Eden and South Lakeland, and a west unitary council covering Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland.

Deputy Carlisle City Council Leader, Gareth Ellis, said: "It’s a ridiculous idea that we would put councillors from a different area on.

"The issue is for the Stanwix area and it is for the Stanwix councillors to form the group, who are all Conservative because that is what the electorate voted for.

"What does she suggest? We put councillors from Botcherby and Currock on it?

"The working group consists of councillors for Stanwix.

"If Cllr Davison was paying attention she would have also heard me announce the formation of a cross party working group to explore the future of Carlisle, the ancient traditions and how these can be maintained in a unitary system. That ultimately might include a recommendation for some kind of parish of the whole of Carlisle that doesn’t already have a parish, which currently also includes urban Stanwix."

The review will consult "all local government electors for the area under review"and any other "person or body who appears to have an interest in the review" on the proposals for a new parish council.