A campaign of Alston Moor Parish Council · Cumbria

Alston Moor & Health

Established 2026 A community campaign archive

Documenting the campaigns to keep open Grisedale Croft and to reopen Alston Cottage Hospital.

Two campaigns. One community.

Healthcare on the moor is worth keeping.

Alston Moor is one of the most isolated rural communities in mainland England. The Alston Moor Parish Council is documenting and pursuing two parallel campaigns — to keep Grisedale Croft open, and to restore community healthcare to the Ruth Lancaster James site.

The campaigns

Two campaigns for one community's health.

Each has its own story, its own working group, and its own folder in the Vault. Both rest on commitments that have already been made.

Campaign 01

Keep Grisedale Croft open

Grisedale Croft is the only residential care home on Alston Moor and the residential half of the 2018 NHS-and-Council settlement that followed the loss of in-patient beds at the Ruth Lancaster James Cottage Hospital. The Parish Council, working with this community, intends to hold them to it.

Campaign 02

The Ruth Lancaster James site

The cottage hospital served Alston Moor for over a century. Its in-patient beds were closed in 2018 on the basis of commitments that have only ever been half kept. This campaign asks the ICB to recognise the integrated model the community designed in 2014 — and which the country now calls a Neighbourhood Health Centre.

Latest news

From the working group.

Updates, meeting reports, and developments worth knowing about. Subscribe below to get them by email.

01 May 2026 Grisedale Croft

Public consultation on Grisedale Croft opens

Westmorland and Furness Council's twelve-week public consultation on the future of Grisedale Croft is expected to open today. The Parish Council's response is being prepared with the Working Group.

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