Local Area
WELCOME TO IREBY, LECK AND COWAN BRIDGE
The Parish lies entirely within Lancashire as an outlying finger of land running from the Lune Valley northward into the Pennine uplands, culminating at the County Stone on the border of Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Lancashire.
The community in Leck tends to be scattered along the country lanes, mainly in small clusters of traditional rural housing and small farms, an unusually high proportion of which are rented properties. Ireby is a nucleated village settled around a series of village greens along Ireby Beck and Cowan Bridge has grown along and around the old through route linking Kendal in South Lakeland with Skipton in Yorkshire where the old bridge carries it over Leck Beck.
The Register of Electors for 2014 – 2015 for Leck and that section of Cowan Bridge that lies within the parish lists 130 electors. That for Ireby lists 68. There are fewer families of young children than in the past and opportunities for local rural workers are declining. In common with many rural areas, there is little affordable housing.
The decision of the Secretary of State to approve the extension of the Yorkshire Dales National Park to take effect from August 1st 2016 will bring in a period of transition as it will take in the whole of Leck and Ireby, although the settlement at Cowan Bridge will remain just outside the boundary.
The YDNPA is expected to assume most of the powers and responsibilities currently exercised by the Local Authority based in Lancaster and Preston.
The Secretary of State’s expectation is that “they (The National Park Authorities) will seek to foster the economic and social well-being of local communities''.
Amenities available in Leck Ward to residents of the parish:
- Fraser Hall Community Centre
- Youth Club
- Leck St Peter’s CE Primary School
- Leck St Peter’s Church of England
- Methodist Church in Cowan Bridge
- Cowan Bridge Store
- Mobile Library Service
- First Responders from the Kirkby Lonsdale and Ingleton areas cover this parish
- The village greens
- the designated children’s play area
- Neighbourhood Watch and farmwatch
- Mobile library
- First Responders from the Kirky Lonsdale and Ingleton areas cover this parish.
THE IREBY BECK RESTORATION SCHEME
