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.
17 July 2026 — after the public meeting, a formal request for a joint decision
Following the Town Hall public meeting on 16 July, the Working Group wrote the next day to Ms Nikkie Phipps, Councillor Patricia Bell and Michael Robinson of WFC, setting out in full what Alston Moor has already lost since 2014 — the community hospital’s inpatient beds, the minor injuries unit, the resident midwife and nursing team, and a meaningful ambulance service — and what a reduction or closure at Grisedale Croft would mean on top of that. The letter renews the case that the 2018 undertaking on step-down beds still stands, and asks formally for a joint meeting of WFC, the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB), the Parish Council and the League of Friends, with people present who can take a decision, rather than a further consultation event.
Read the letter of 17 July 2026 →
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.