Two Cockermouth parks have been registered as community assets - meaning should they ever come up for sale, the community will be given the opportunity to buy them.

Harris Park and the Memorial Gardens have been registered following an application from the town's civic trust to Allerdale council.

John Dent, secretary, said: "Harris Park and Memorial Gardens have been placed on their list of assets of community value. 

"It means that if the owners of Harris Park, Allerdale council or Memorial Gardens, Cockermouth Town Council, wish to sell the land in the future then it must first be offered to the community.

"While it is inconceivable that the current councillors would sell these parks, there may come a time in the future where, due to financial pressures, they may be considered a source of capital that could be realised. 

"If that situation should occur here then the community will have the ability and time to purchase the parks and save then from being sold to, for example, a housing developer."

He said the civic trust was looking into other places which may benefit from being placed on the list.

Harris Park was created following a public meeting in 1893, held to consider how the town might commemorate the marriage of the Duke of York to Princess Mary. Mrs Eliza J Harris offered to purchase land for a park to commemorate the life of her husband, Joseph Harris, of Harris’s Linen Mill. Thirteen Acres of land on Rubby Banks was purchased and given to Cockermouth in 1895. Nowadays the popular park has a children’s playground, tennis courts, bowling green, woodland and riverside walks.

Land for the Memorial Gardens was acquired by the Cockermouth War Memorial Committee and handed over to the then Urban District Council (now Cockermouth Town Council) in 1946. It was opened as a war memorial by Lt Col Chicken on August 11, 1956. It has a children’s playground, riverside walks and wheelchair user trails.