Local runner Gary McKee, dubbed the ‘Marathon Man’ after he ran a marathon every day for a year and raised over £1 million for Macmillan cancer charity, has teamed up with Josh MacAlister, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Whitehaven and Workington, to call for improvements to cancer care in West Cumbria.

The call follows the release of data showing that waiting times for cancer treatment in north and west Cumbria are among the worst in the country, with almost half of all cancer patients here waiting more than two months from referral to treatment.

The pair are calling on the government to provide urgent support to the NHS in Cumbria to bring down waiting times for treatment. In addition, they’re asking North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust to reinstate the Macmillan Community Cancer Nursing service, which helped cancer patients navigate the system and access a range of support. The service was scrapped last year, but an evaluation obtained through a Freedom of Information request by Josh MacAlister found it to be valued by patients. A business case for a replacement service promised last autumn is yet to materialise.

Josh said:

“The Tories have brought our NHS to its knees and the latest figures show the human impact of that. Waiting times are the highest on record across the country and the fault for that lies at the door of 10 Downing Street.

“Locally, we must ask the tough questions about why and how almost half of all cancer patients are waiting months to begin treatment – some of the worst performance in England. At the same time, a vital support service for cancer patients was scrapped and not replaced. It’s not good enough and patients deserve better.”

Gary said:

“I heard from so many people who benefited from the Macmillan cancer support who were devastated when the service was scrapped. We need it back here serving people living with cancer in West Cumbria. That’s why I’m working with Josh to improve cancer services for local people and why I’ll keep fundraising for Macmillian and the brilliant work they do.”

Last week the government released data on the amount of sewage dumped into our waterways by water companies in 2023 and it turned out to be the worst year on record.

Sewage is being dumped in local becks, rivers and the sea at more than 50 sites right across West Cumbria. Into the Irish Sea at Workington, Parton, Whitehaven, St. Bees and Seascale. Into the rivers Ehen and Keekle in Cleator Moor, Cleator and Egremont. Ling Beck. Pow Beck. The River Derwent. The list goes on.

The levels are alarming. Thousands of hours of sewage polluting the water and causing untold harm to plant and wildlife.

The worst thing? The government are letting them get away with it.

Last year, Labour MPs tabled a Bill in Parliament to take tough action against water companies and force them to clean up their act. Tory MPs – including ours here in Cumbria – refused to back it.

The result – the highest levels of sewage dumped into our water since records began.

I know there is no easy fix, but who is in power matters. Labour will introduce tough new legislation to clean up our water, tighten up monitoring, allow criminal charges to be brought against water company bosses who fail to act and ban their bonuses until they sort out the mess they’ve made.

If I’m elected as your Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington I’ll proudly vote for this legislation.

Until then, join me in putting pressure on the current government by signing my petition: joshforwestcumbria.co.uk/stop-the-sewage

Josh MacAlister

Standing to be Labour’s MP for Whitehaven and Workington

– Business and political leaders call on National Grid to rethink plans

A group of business and political leaders in Cumbria have joined forces to ask the National Grid ESO to look again at their plans for the future electricity system in the UK as it overlooks vital capacity needs in West Cumbria.

National Grid ESO, the electricity system operator, recently launched a blueprint, “Beyond 2030”, which outlines a £58 billion plan to upgrade the UK’s electricity infrastructure, creating new connections for new nuclear, offshore wind and other major energy projects.

However, West Cumbria is missing from the plan.

Josh MacAlister, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Whitehaven and Workington, co-ordinated the letter, which has been signed by Cumberland Council boss Cllr Mark Fryer, Jo Lappin, Chief Executive of Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, Dianne Richardson, Chief Executive of Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster (BECBC) and Lord Roger Liddle.

Josh said:

“We have ambitious plans to put West Cumbria at the forefront of the clean energy revolution, with new nuclear, offshore wind, expansion of the Port of Workington and more major industry coming here.

“However, the blueprint launched by National Grid ESO overlooks our area entirely, focusing solely on new connections for existing approved projects elsewhere.

“It risks creating a vicious circle – we can’t move forward, for example, on new offshore wind in part because we don’t have the grid connections, but we can’t get the grid connections because there aren’t any approved projects.

“We want National Grid ESO to come here and hear about our plans and then amend their blueprint to make sure Cumbria has the grid connections we need.”

Project Collette, a plan for a new 1.2GW community run offshore wind farm west of Whitehaven, is an example of potential energy generation, but the project would require grid upgrades to be viable.

Read the letter below

You can read “Beyond 2030” here. The key pages to look at are 62-66.

We’ve secured a major victory in our campaign to improve local bus services!

The campaign, launched in December last year, sought improvements to existing services and for the return of some vital axed routes which left whole communities cut off from the public transport network.

I wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport demanding proper funding for local bus services, but this funding was not forthcoming in the Chancellor’s Budget announced at the beginning of March.

A survey completed by hundreds of residents across West Cumbria included many suggestions which I asked Cumberland Council to consider.

The council has now decided to proceed with procuring new and improved bus services using the limited funding it still receives from the government to support local bus services. Many are those called for by residents and me and my fellow Parliamentary candidates.

• The 22 service from Cleator Moor-Cleator-Egremont-Whitehaven, which was cut completely, will be restored
• A new service between Seascale and Whitehaven will be introduced
• Sunday services on the 30 between Egremont / Frizington and Whitehaven will be increased to half hourly
• Withdrawn services on the 217 – Frizington-Cockermouth (Wednesdays) and 218 – Frizington-Workington (Fridays) routes will be restored

All of these are subject to successful bids from potential operators.

I really welcome the engagement from Cumberland’s Labour-led council on this important issue.

The decision of councillors to provide funding to support vital routes like the 22 will give local people more options to travel and better connect our towns and villages. I’ll be encouraging operators to bid to deliver these services.

Our broken bus system needs major reform and that’s something the next Labour government has committed to do. If I’m lucky enough to be elected as your MP, I’ll proudly support those reforms.

Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Whitehaven & Workington, Josh MacAlister, has called on the Government to release vital funding for new dedicated sixth form space at Whitehaven and Workington academies to free up space for more students to attend the schools.

Cumbria Education Trust, which runs the academy, has submitted a request to the Government for urgent consideration of capital investment to continue delivering a quality 11-18 education offer across the Whitehaven and Workington academy sites, which are nearing capacity. Sixth form numbers are expected to double in the next 4-5 years.

Josh has written to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, asking that the department urgently releases the capital investment needed from the underspend in its existing budget. Approximately £10 million is needed. The Department for Education has an underspend of at least £830 million for 2023-24.

Josh said:

“It is great to see local schools doing so well but frustrating for parents who want their children to attend and can’t get in. I have visited both Workington and Whitehaven academies and heard directly from the school leadership about the capacity challenges they’re facing.

“The Department for Education is responsible for capital funding for schools and Cumbria Education Trust has already put in a bid for investment. This funding for a dedicated sixth form is vital both to ensure that quality 16-18 education can meet expected demand in the coming years but also to free up space that could be used to increase the number of school places for future intakes at year 7.

“I have written to the Secretary of State urging her to release the funds so work can begin.”

Josh has launched a campaign to put pressure on the Government to release the money.

Sign the petition

Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Whitehaven & Workington, Josh MacAlister, has condemned the Government for what he calls a “shocking betrayal” of West Cumbria over new nuclear.

Sign up to Josh’s New Nuclear Now campaign

Information revealed in answers to Parliamentary Questions tabled by Labour MP Sarah Jones on behalf of Josh MacAlister shows “at best, disinterest and disengagement, and at worst, complete negligence” on the part of the Government, says Josh, speaking exclusively to the Whitehaven News.

• The Government acknowledged that proposals have been made by Solway Community Power Company to build small modular reactors on a site adjacent to Sellafield and that multiple meetings have taken place between Government and Community Power Company – facts denied by a local Conservative MP.

• The Government admitted that despite receiving proposals and holding multiple meetings, they have made no assessment of Solway Community Power Company’s £6 billion plan to build two SMRs on the site near Sellafield.

• The Government also admitted that they made no economic impact assessment following the collapse of the NuGen deal in 2018 to assess the impact this would have on electricity generation, job creation and investment in West Cumbria.

• Finally, the Government was forced to acknowledge that they have no idea how many projects or proposals have been made for nuclear development on the Moorside site.

Josh said:

“I asked Labour’s frontbench team to submit these questions because I suspected they would be very revealing.

“What the answers show is, despite warm words from Ministers, the Government has done nothing to progress new nuclear power here.

“No thought was given to the impact of the collapse of the NuGen deal. No assessment has been made of a £6 billion proposal to build two small modular reactors. And the Government still will not allow the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to sell land near Sellafield for the project. It is a shocking betrayal of West Cumbria which shows at best, disinterest and disengagement, and at worst, complete negligence.

“I urge local people to beware false promises from the Tories about delivering new nuclear power at the next General Election and judge them on what they’ve done over the last 14 years, which is nothing.

“Labour will turbocharge development of new nuclear power stations and if I am lucky enough to be elected as your Labour MP I will move heaven and earth to get West Cumbria to the front of the queue. We deserve nothing less.”

The answers came as the Government announced funding in the Budget on 6th March to purchase two sites elsewhere in the country for nuclear development.

Last year I wrote to the Prime Minister demanding the transport funding we need to upgrade our railway, roads and buses in West Cumbria.

Ahead of the Budget this week I wrote to the Chancellor demanding that he commit the funding we were promised to improve rural bus services and upgrade local roads and the West Cumbria Coast Line.

We didn’t see a single penny to fund those promises in his Budget. 

The Tories have failed to deliver for West Cumbria for 14 years and now they expect us to believe their promises of jam tomorrow. 

Local people have had enough of empty promises from Tory politicians that disappear once the election has been and gone. 

It’s time for change. It’s time for an MP and a Government with a plan to deliver for West Cumbria.

I was delighted to welcome Ed Miliband, Labour’s Shadow Energy Secretary, to the Port of Workington to discuss the pitch laid out in my industrial plan for West Cumbria to double the Port of Workington in order to attract new industry to the area.

Major expansion of the Port of Workington is central to my industrial plan for West Cumbria because it opens up the potential for new industry and thousands of jobs.

I’ve been working with Ed Miliband to make the case for inclusion of Workington in the £1.8 billion Port investment programme promised by the next Labour Government.

Ed confirmed that Workington is in a prime position to benefit from this investment and I look forward to working with him and Cumberland Council if I’m elected to deliver it.

Read the coverage in the Times & Star

Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Whitehaven & Workington, Josh MacAlister, has launched a survey seeking ideas from Whitehaven residents to make the town “the Whitby of the west”.

The survey has already received almost 100 responses in just a few days, with ideas ranging from very simple things like cleaning up the streets and the frontages of empty shops, introducing more regular police patrols and reviewing parking charges, to more ambitious proposals to bring empty buildings back into use, attract more tourists into the town and better integrate the harbour into the town centre.

Josh said:

“Whitehaven is a beautiful town with so much potential. It is a difficult time for the high street, but there are lots of examples, like Whitby, which have bucked the trend. Why can’t Whitehaven be one of them? It has all the right ingredients.

“There are already some positive things happening, like the new digital and gaming hub, and there are some quick wins we should be able to deliver easily without additional resources, but we need a detailed, long-term masterplan for the regeneration of the whole town centre.

“I want to hear the ideas of local people who use the town about how they think it should be improved and then I’ll lobby local decision makers, business investors and national government to get the resources and levers we need to make it happen.

“If I’m elected as your MP, this is the sort of thing I’ll do. Get people around the table, knock on doors in Westminster, be a champion for our area, and bang the drum for West Cumbria at every opportunity.”

One issue mentioned by lots of respondents is the need to tackle business rates, which price many new businesses out of the town centre. Labour has committed to abolishing business rates and replacing them with a fairer system.

Complete the survey

I was delighted to welcome Bridget Phillipson MP to West Cumbria this week.

We visited Howgill Family Centre in Cleator Moor, held a Q&A with apprentices at Gen2 and hit the streets to talk to voters about our campaign for free breakfast clubs for every primary age child. Sign my petition here

Read the coverage in the Whitehaven News