Alston Moor Parish Council — Grisedale Croft Working Group
This page brings together the Working Group's formal correspondence with Westmorland and Furness Council during the consultation on the future of Grisedale Croft Care Home. It is updated as the case develops, with each letter linked in full below.
11 June 2026 — the documents the NHS has now disclosed
Since our letter of 22 May, the documentary record has moved decisively. In response to the Working Group's freedom of information requests, North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) has disclosed the Alston Plan 2017–2020 and the board papers behind it. They confirm, in the NHS's own words, that two step-up and step-down beds were to be provided at Grisedale Croft as the replacement for the in-patient beds the community gave up at the Ruth Lancaster James Cottage Hospital — and that the nursing and therapy support needed to make them work was promised in writing, and for a time delivered.
On 11 June the Working Group wrote again to Councillor Patricia Bell, Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Care, and to Ms Nikkie Phipps, Assistant Director of Care Services, putting these documents before the Council. The letter asks the Council to confirm that it accepts the commitment it inherited from Cumbria County Council, to frame all options in the consultation honestly, to publish the Equality Impact Assessment, and to work with the community and the NHS to restore the service rather than close it. It renews the six requests made on 22 May and adds a seventh.
Read the letter of 11 June 2026 →
22 May 2026 — the community's full position, and a missed legal deadline
On 22 May the Working Group sent a detailed formal letter to Councillor Patricia Bell and Ms Nikkie Phipps, setting out the community's full position on the consultation. The letter draws on the freedom of information programme, the documentary record of the 2017–18 settlement, and the legal framework that governs consultations of this kind. It set out six specific things the Working Group asked the Council to do before the consultation closes — including pausing to conduct a joint review with NHS partners, publishing the Equality Impact Assessment, and confirming in writing that any replacement provision will be in Alston itself.
On the same day, Westmorland and Furness Council failed to meet its statutory 20-working-day deadline to release four freedom of information responses that go directly to the evidence base for closure. The Parish Council gave the Council five working days to respond before referring the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office.
