Electors have a range of options – they can vote in person, by post or by appointing someone they trust to vote in their place, known as a proxy vote.  

The deadline to apply for a postal vote, or to amend or cancel existing postal or proxy votes, is 5pm on 19 April. The deadline to apply for a new proxy vote is 5pm on 26 April.   

To apply for a postal or proxy vote voters must contact either Allerdale Borough Council, Carlisle City Council or Copeland Borough Council depending on where they live, and request the necessary forms. More information can be found on each council’s website, or by phone and email.  

The contact details for each council are: 

• Allerdale Borough Council area: 0303 123 1731 or email electoralservices@allerdale.gov.uk  
• Carlisle City Council area: 01228 817555/6 or email elections@carlisle.gov.uk  
• Copeland Borough Council area:  01946 598300 and email is elections@copeland.gov.uk 

Anyone applying for a postal or proxy vote will need to be registered first. If they are not already registered, they can do this online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. Anyone unable to register to vote online should contact their local elections office on the telephone numbers above.  

But you have to be quick as the deadline to register to vote is midnight on 14 April. 

On Thursday 5 May voters will go to the polls to have their say on who represents them at a local level. This year residents in the Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland areas will be voting to select councillors who will represent them on the new unitary Cumberland Council.  

In the areas currently covered by Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland councils 46 councillors will be elected in new Cumberland wards. The ward boundaries follow those currently in place for seats on Cumbria County Council. 

These councillors will be elected for a five-year term of office, the first year on a Cumberland ‘Shadow Authority’ that will oversee the planning and preparation for the new unitary council, followed by four years on Cumberland Council, which will ‘go live’ in April 2023. 

The existing county, borough and district councils will continue to operate and deliver all current services until Vesting Day for the new authority on 1 April 2023. 

On that date the Shadow Authority and its 46 councillors become the new Cumberland Council and it will take over responsibility for services. At that point the existing county, city, borough and district councils will be dissolved. 

For information on Cumberland Council elections in their area, how to register to vote, how to apply to vote by post or by proxy, and who is standing for election, voters can visit the Shadow Authority for Cumberland Council website at www.cumberland.gov.uk. 

Electors in some wards will also be voting in some unscheduled local by-elections.