Calderbridge and Ponsonby are two, neighbouring, small rural hamlets, located in the Calder Valley in West Cumbria, within the Boundaries of Ponsonby Parish. Their history and development have been dominated by the River Calder and the consequential agricultural, religious and industrial developments and heritage, associated with it. We live in an incredibly beautiful river valley containing many contrasting features, ranging from the ruins of a historically significant 12th century Cistercian Abbey to the major industrial development at the Sellafield nuclear site. The current boundaries of Ponsonby parish were altered about 5 years ago when St Bridget’s Beckermet Parish, which contained Calderbridge and half of Beckermet, was dismantled to allow Beckermet to be served by a single Parish, jointly with Thornhill. We took the opportunity to join Calderbridge and Pobsonby together as part of Ponsonby Parish.

Ponsonby Parish Council forms the lowest tier of elected local government, with Parish Councillors serving our community on a purely voluntary basis. The Parish Council has a budget of about £5,000 per year, generated from part of the Council tax local ratepayers pay. This is heavily committed to provide services such as grass cutting, common land maintenance, commenting on planning applications etc.. We try and ensure our community is consulted and expresses opinions when key things arise such as wind Turbines and NuGen.

The Parish Council is currently encouraging the production of a Community Plan to help shape all our futures.
We are entitled to have 7 Parish Councillors who are elected (providing there are more than 7 people who want to be Parish Councillors!) roughly every 5 years. The current Parish Councillors are:

  • Robert Edward Jones (Chair) bob.e.jones@hotmail.com
  • Scott Andrew Robertson (Vice-chair)
  • Hannah  Webb (Clerk) ponsonbypcc@yahoo.com
  • Joseph Tyson Norman
  • Allan William Rigg
  • James Stanley
  • Yvonne Tilson
  • Liz Dias

We meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 7pm in the Village Hall. Anyone from the Parish is both welcome and entitled to attend. Please come along and get engaged, we can’t represent your views and interests if we don’t know what they are!

Parish Council Boundaries
Click on the map thumbnails to view the full sized maps.


Parish Current Boundaries
 

Ponsonby Parish Old Boundaries
Current Ponsonby Boundaries
 
Old Ponsonby/St Bridget’s Boundaries

Click Here to read the latest crime reports.

Our Meeting minutes and documentation including the latest chairman’s report can be found on our OneDrive below

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