Forest Plan / Context / Local Policy Context

Local Policy Context

Our Relationship with Local Policy

Raise consult closely with local policy partners and statutory bodies, including Cumberland Council, Westmorland and Furness Council and the Lake District National Park Authority. We engage with local strategic initiatives including the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (under development concurrently), Catchment Partnerships hosted by Rivers Trusts, Cumbria People and Nature Network, and Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership.

To establish the policy opportunities and constraints for Cumbria Community Forest, our team have considered the strategic plans of each local council and of the Lake District National Park Partnership and reviewed local development plans and relevant policies county-wide.

Our collaborative approach to developing this Forest Plan intentionally connects and supports a range of established and emerging policy and strategy in Cumbria, across land use, biodiversity and nature restoration, climate, water, public health, employment and the economy. This is represented in Figure 4.

By working closely with local authorities in the development of this plan, we situate Cumbria Community Forest as a key route to delivery for relevant local policies and strategy.

Figure 4: Summary of relevant local policy and strategy

Land use

Local Plans (development plans)

Lake District National Park Partnership Management Plan (updated 2024)

Cumbria Green Infrastructure Investment Strategy (2014)

Water

Catchment Partnership Plans

Catchment Flood Management Plans

Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (2022)

Biodiversity & Nature Restoration

Cumbria Local Nature Strategy (pending)

Lake District National Park Nature Recovery Plan (2024)

Westmorland & Furness Council Nature & Biodiversity Action Plan Part 1 (2024)

Public Health

Cumberland Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023-28

Westmorland & Furness Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2024-34

Climate

Cumberland Council Climate and Nature Strategy 2024-27

Westmorland & Furness Council Climate Action Plan 2023-37, Part 1 & Part 2

Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership Emissions Reduction Pathways (2024)

Employment & Economy

Cumbria Local Skills Improvement Plan (2023)

Investing in Climate Positive Cumbria (2021)

Land Use Planning

The local planning authorities for Cumbria are the two unitary authorities, Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council (replacing the former county and district councils in 2023), the Lake District National Park Authority and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority within their respective park boundaries.

In decision-making for land use change and development, planning authorities refer to statutory development plans known as Local Plans, plus Neighbourhood Plans where adopted, and supplementary planning documents [C]. These plans can help to bring together housing and infrastructure developments with tree planting and woodland creation, achieving high-quality developments with space for people and nature to co-exist.

Local Plans have a 15-year term and outside of the national parks were previously the responsibility of Cumbria’s district councils. Each new unitary authority has a strategy towards a new unified Local Plan for their area outside of the national parks [1]. Meanwhile, the Lake District National Park Authority’s Local Plan is in place until 2035. Supplementary planning documents cover topics such as green infrastructure, climate and biodiversity.

The National Planning Policy Framework (2024) states that “an approved Community Forest Plan may be a material consideration in preparing development plans” (p. 44).

[C] To be replaced with Supplementary Plans under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023

Green Infrastructure

Green infrastructure (sometimes known as ‘green and blue infrastructure’) is a network of green spaces, water and other natural features which provides multiple benefits to communities, rural and urban [2]. It can include woodlands and other treescapes such as parkland, street trees, trees dividing residential and other areas, community orchards and tree-lined paths [3]. It is recognised for the wide range of environmental, economic, health and wellbeing benefits it provides for communities and their prosperity [4]. Cumbria’s Local Plans highlight the multifunctional value of green infrastructure for land use development, citing benefits for public health and wellbeing, biodiversity and environmental management.  

The Cumbria Green Infrastructure Investment Strategy (2014) aims to direct future investment in the county. It provides a cohesive summary of existing Green Infrastructure policy in Local Plans across Cumbria and case studies of related projects such as:

  • St Cuthberts Garden Village: a large urban housing development to the south of Carlisle where the incorporation of green space is central to development plans.

  • Cumbria Connections, a farmer-led initiative which worked to develop a sustainable rural economy along with creating and restoring woodland habitats within the high fells of the Bassenthwaite and Ullswater catchments.

Raise: Cumbria Community Forest provides a delivery mechanism to support future green infrastructure creation and development through our ability to fund the creation of woodlands and treescapes, and in the future, the restoration of unmanaged woodlands into management.   

Public Health

The relationship between environment, health and wellbeing is prominent in local policy. Central to the Cumbria Joint Public Health Strategy 2019-2029 (Cumbria Public Health Alliance, 2019) was recognition that public health is holistically supported by policy and practice which widens community participation, protects and enhances nature, improves urban and rural environments, provides good employment, and thus supports healthy lifestyles. The Cumbria Joint Public Health Strategy was formally adopted by Cumbrian local authorities and the Lake District National Park Authority in 2019. Subsequently, and during our preparation of this Forest Plan, each new unitary authority has produced a Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy for their respective administrative area [5].

Cumbria Community Forest offers an evidence-driven pathway to direct resources and woodland creation opportunities where health impact is a factor.

Our Opportunity Mapping section details how we incorporate holistic measures of public benefit, such as accessibility on foot, indices of deprivation and health inequality into our analysis of potential woodland locations. Our place-based strategy also addresses the ‘Natural Health Service’ strand in Cumbria Local Nature Partnership's Framework for Future Action, which seeks to: “Develop a plan for encouraging participation in the natural world, particularly targeted at those in urban and more deprived areas”.

Through tailored programmes of community engagement led by Raise, working with partners and integrating with existing social prescribing, volunteering and community health initiatives, Cumbria Community Forest will offer health benefits for communities including neurodivergent individuals, young people, elderly people, those with chronic illness or recovering from illness, and lonely people, by providing supported access to beneficial woodland activities near people’s homes.

Nature Recovery: Trees and Woodlands

This Forest Plan has been developed alongside the Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) and offers a delivery mechanism for woodland nature recovery in the county.

Supporting relevant priorities in the draft LNRS [6] at the time of writing [D], our tree and woodland establishment activities will:

  • substantially contribute to creating and connecting woodland, and increasing non-woodland tree cover in Cumbria
  • support increasing the area of species-rich hedgerows and high nature conservation value scrub, such as via Raise’s proven agroforestry offer
  • enable more people to take action for nature through tree planting and maintenance

Within its forest boundary and any additional pilot areas, Cumbria Community Forest will be able to deliver a range of specific measures detailed in the draft LNRS, as identified from the draft strategy documents publicly available [7]. For example, and not limited to:

  • creating inclusive opportunities for people to take practical action for nature recovery, including via volunteering and social prescribing
  • develop site-specific woodland management plans in accordance with UK Forestry Standard, including biodiversity monitoring
  • creating multifunctional and productive mixed woodlands that provide economic opportunities via timber, biodiversity, carbon sequestration and access

We note that draft LNRS priorities and measures are subject to change. 

We have liaised with the LNRS development team and several Cumbria Local Nature Partnership (CLNP) members in the production of our complementary Forest Plan highlighting the opportunities through Cumbria Community Forest to deliver landscape-scale nature recovery through woodland creation and management and to reduce health inequalities in the county by increasing access to treescapes and participation in woodland activities.

Our Action Plan objectives demonstrate how we intend to deliver on all five of the CLNP’s priorities: “Nature Recovery” and “Natural Climate Solutions” (via our objectives 1 & 2), “Knowledge and Skills” (via our objectives 7 and 10), “Natural Health Service” (via our objectives 3-6, 8 and 10), and “Green Growth” (via our objectives 1, 7 and 9).

The Lake District National Park Partnership’s Nature Recovery Delivery Plan (2020) cites opportunities for creation of broadleaved woodland with the National Park, in support of the draft LNRS and to connect with areas of ancient woodland in particular. Target 7 of the Plan includes increasing woodland canopy cover in the National Park to 14.1% by 2030, from a baseline of 12.6% in 2020 (p.22).

Each of Cumbria’s unitary authorities recognise the beneficial opportunities in their areas offered by Cumbria Community Forest in their respective nature strategies. Westmorland and Furness Council in their Nature and Biodiversity Action Plan Part One (p.20), identify that the Council are working closely with Raise to identify Community Forest sites in Westmorland and Furness. Cumberland Council in their Climate and Nature Strategy 2024-2027 identify Raise: Cumbria Community Forest as a delivery partner “to protect and grow more community trees, woodland ... for the benefit of local people and nature” (p.27).

[D] Cumbria LNRS is in preparation, led by Westmorland & Furness Council, with local authority adoption intended in 2025.

Biodiversity: avoiding negative impacts

As identified in liaison with Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) development team, Natural England and Cumbria Local Nature Partnership, key considerations for the expansion of Cumbria Community Forest must be to:

  • Support the LNRS overarching priority of encouraging a mosaic of thriving habitats in Cumbria [E]
  • Recognise and avoid negative impact on non-woodland priority habitats
  • Recognise and avoid negative impact of woodland establishment on priority species, including wading birds
  • Avoid detriment to peat soils, which also has climate impact

We will also meet the biodiversity requirements and wherever possible the best practice guidelines detailed in the UK Forestry Standard.

[E] Pending confirmation of specific wording of LNRS

Water

The four Catchment Partnerships in Cumbria and their Catchment Plans [8] are coordinated by the respective Rivers Trusts (Eden, Lune, South Cumbria and West Cumbria). The Catchment Partnerships and Plans address the landscape-scale issues of reducing the impacts and risks of flooding, improving water quality and improving the health of river ecosystems. Riparian woodland creation is a key delivery mechanism within these plans which our Forest Plan supports. Across the county, the four Rivers Trusts work with landowners to improve natural flood management (NFM) including the use of trees, example projects are detailed on their websites [9].

As specified on The Flood Hub website, “Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council as Lead Local Flood Authorities in Cumbria have a statutory responsibility to lead on flood risk management activities in collaboration with other risk management authorities (RMAs)... In Cumbria, the RMAs are the Environment Agency, United Utilities as the water company, National Highways and Westmorland and Furness Council and Cumberland Council as the highway authorities”. The RMAs, supported by many other local organisations, work in partnership to deliver flood risk management actions at strategic, tactical and operational levels. A range of relevant local strategies including Catchment Flood Management Plans [10] and Cumbria’s Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (2022) are cited in the Cumbria Strategic Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategic Partnership Handbook 2024-5.

Cumbria Community Forest can support natural flood management services through appropriate tree and woodland establishment.

Climate

Following local government reorganisation, Westmorland and Furness Council’s Climate Action Plan Part One (2023) cites Cumbria Community Forest as a route to protecting nature and commits to addressing environmental inequalities such as climate impacts and access to green space. Cumberland Council’s Climate and Nature Strategy 2024-2027  pledges at least one Council owned site in progress per year with Cumbria Community Forest (p.19) and supports the adoption of this Forest Plan.

Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership (ZCCP)’s Farming and other Land Use Emission Reduction and Sequestration Pathway (2024) has four strategic priorities, of which one is: “afforestation/management of trees”. In support of this priority, ZCCP strategies include to “increase the area of formal woodland tree cover in Cumbria to 16.5%” which corresponds to the Government woodland canopy target supported by this Forest Plan. A further strategy put forward by ZCCP is to “undertake opportunity mapping to assess untapped urban and rural areas which might be available for any new afforestation”. We substantially address this strategy through our opportunity mapping and our site-by-site approach.

This Forest Plan offers ambitious and realistic plans for multi-functional woodland creation.

We work with farmers, land managers and landowners, on diverse estates, taking a flexible, partnership approach which is demonstrably effective in increasing tree cover and planning for sustainable woodland management [F].

[F] See Case Studies on Raise: Cumbria Community Forest’s website

Employment and Economy

As a major landscape-scale plan for people and environment, enacting this long-term Forest Plan will necessarily generate substantial employment and economic activity in woodland creation and management locally, including through productive woodlands and timber harvesting and processing, and agroforestry.

CCF will also sustain and generate work in health, education, leisure and the arts, such as through green social prescribing, outdoor learning, woodland access and our arts-led engagement approach. Our team link with relevant employment and skills initiatives locally such as the Local Skills Improvement Plan managed by Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, and Cumbria’s Land and Nature Skills Service.

Cumbria’s Green Investment Plan – Investing in Climate Positive Cumbria (2021) notes investment opportunities associated with Cumbria Community Forest – NC1: community woodland creation and NC4: agroforestry (p.36).

A Tree and Woodland Strategy

Only the Copeland area of Cumbria has a current Tree and Woodlands Strategy (2021-2025), and local guidance on trees and woodlands applies only in limited areas, such as Carlisle or within the Lake District [11]. Our Forest Plan addresses this policy gap, providing a key strategic reference across areas of Cumbria within the Cumbria Community Forest boundary.

As the first bespoke community forest strategy for Cumbria, our Forest Plan offers a vital addition to local strategy: it is a 25-year Tree and Woodland Strategy for a large part of the county, suitable for adoption by local authorities into their future plans.

Overarching Strategic Plans

Our Forest Plan provides substantial support to the Cumberland Council Plan (2023-2027) in areas such as climate resilience, growth of the low carbon economy and Cumberland Council’s central aim of improving residents’ health and wellbeing.

Similarly, Cumbria Community Forest Plan offers a delivery route for several Westmorland & Furness Council Plan (2023-2028) priorities, including supporting active, healthy lifestyles; reducing inequalities; habitat creation, tree planting, biodiversity health and net zero carbon.

Likewise, our Forest Plan supports the Lake District National Park Partnership Management Plan (2020-2025) specifically as a major route to establishing new tree cover in the Lake District at a locally agreed scale, and also in improving flood resilience, water quality, soil quality, ecosystem health, access to high quality greenspace for leisure and rural employment opportunities.

In Summary

This Cumbria Community Forest Plan provides:

  • Long-term strategic vision and an immediate delivery pathway to complement and enhance the local policy landscape in green infrastructure, climate, nature recovery, water, health and economy.
  • A resource for public health through place-making which centralises the people and nature relationship, bringing together land use, culture, environment and social justice as a holistic system centred on much-needed local woodlands.
  • A Landscape-Scale Tree and Woodland Strategy for a large portion of Cumbria, optimised to local contexts via our geospatial analysis and our community-centred operational approach.

Furthermore, this Forest Plan is developed to be:

  • Compatible with statutory land use planning, with a view to adoption by local authorities.
  • Complementary to, and integrated with, existing and emerging local strategy in trees and woodland, green infrastructure, climate and biodiversity.
  • Supportive of wider local policy priorities, particularly in addressing public health inequalities and generating good employment in the green economy.

[1] Cumberland Council (2025) Cumberland Local Plan. Available at: https://www.cumberland.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/cumberland-local-plan; Westmorland and Furness (2025) Westmorland and Furness Local Plan. Available at: https://www.westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk/localplan

[2] Natural England (2024) Green Infrastructure Home. Available at: https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/GreenInfrastructure/Home.aspx

[3] Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (2018 to 2021) and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. (2019) National Planning Practice Guidance for the Natural Environment, Paragraph: 004 Reference ID: 8-004-20190721. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/natural-environment

[4] Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2024) National Planning Policy Framework, p.73. Available at:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67aafe8f3b41f783cca46251/NPPF_December_2024.pdf

[5] Cumberland Council (2023) Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023 – 2028. Available at: https://www.cumberland.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health/cumberland-joint-local-health-and-wellbeing-strategy-2023-2028#:~:text=This%20Strategy%20sets%20out%20the%20vision%20and%20priorities,the%20overall%20health%20and%20wellbeing%20of%20the%20peo;  Westmorland and Furness Council (2024) Westmorland and Furness Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2024-2034. Available at: https://westmorlandandfurness.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s24746/JLHWS%20v4Supplement.pdf

[6] Westmorland & Furness Council (2024) DRAFT Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy Priorities Draft V1.2. Available at: https://cumbrialnrs.org.uk/content-development

[7] Westmorland & Furness Council (2024) DRAFT Cumbria Local Nature Recovery Strategy Measures V1.0. Available at: https://cumbrialnrs.org.uk/content-development

[8] Eden Catchment Partnership (2020) Revitalising Eden: The Eden Catchment Plan. Available at: https://www.edenriverstrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Revitalising-Eden-Catchment-Plan-WEB.pdf;  South Cumbria Catchment Partnership (2022) The Catchment Plan. Available at: https://btob.scrt.co.uk/south-cumbria-catchment-plan;  West Cumbria Catchment Partnership (2025) Catchment Plan. Available at: https://westcumbriacatchmentpartnership.co.uk/catchment-plan/

[9] West Cumbria Rivers Trust (2024) Natural Flood Management (NFM). Available at: https://www.westcumbriariverstrust.org/natural-flood-management;  South Cumbria Rivers Trust (no date) Natural Flood Management. Available at: https://scrt.co.uk/what-we-do/current-projects/natural-flood-management/;  Eden Rivers Trust (no date), Natural Flood Management measures. Available at: https://www.edenriverstrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/11882_NFM_handbook_WEB.pdf;  Lune Rivers Trust (2025) search results for ‘Natural Flood Management’. Available at: https://luneriverstrust.org.uk/?s=natural+flood+management

[10] For example, for the Derwent Catchment: Environment Agency (2009) River Derwent Catchment Flood Management Plan, Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c4853e5274a1b00422b7c/Derwent_Catchment_Flood_Management_Plan.pdf

[11] Carlisle City Council (no date) Tree Management Principles. Available at: https://www.carlisle.gov.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Residents/Leisure/Tree%20Management%20Principles.pdf;  Lake District National Park Authority (2024) Woodland creation and tree establishment guidelines for the Lake District National Park. Available at: https://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/caringfor/woodland-creation