A motion to return land to Workington Town Council for community benefit is due to be discussed at a meeting after "asset stripping" fears were raised.

The authority is due to discuss the motion by Councillor Mike Heaslip at a meeting this evening at 6.30pm.

Mr Heaslip fears the area could be "asset stripped" if plans for a unitary authority went ahead.

Documents presented to the town council say that land held by the Workington Corporation was transferred to its legal successors, including Allerdale and the county councils in 1974.

However an agreement should have been made to re-transfer the land once the parish authority was established under the Allerdale Parishes Order 1982.

Mr Heaslip said: "I came across this anomaly when I was an executive member of Allerdale council with responsibility for parks and allotments.

"With Councillor Barbara Cannon we arranged the transfer of some assets such as Vulcan park and the allotments, but those were the easy ones.

"With some other properties it might be a bit difficult to get an agreement.

"We were working our way through it slowly, but the thing that forces our hand is that if a unitary authority was established and it was a Cumbria-wide one, one wonders whether they would be interested in any of those assets or if they would sell them off to fund a development in, say, Kendal or Penrith.

"The danger is that we get asset stripped."

Mr Heaslip said which land would be transferred would depend on who owned it back in 1974, but he thinks land could include Bankfield Mansion, Hall Park, the Helena Thompson Museum, the Cloffocks and even the freehold of the Washington Square Shopping Centre.

He said statutory duties of the different councils would also need to be looked at, to determine if it was appropriate for a certain authority to retain the land.

Mr Heaslip said: "Running shopping centres isn't a statutory function of a district council, but running allotments is the responsibility of parishes."

The motion will be discussed at a full council meeting to be held via conferencing platform Zoom at 6.30pm.

At the same meeting, councillors will also be asked to consider progressing plans to buy the Princess Street Day Centre from the county council for £50,000 to use it as offices and a base for the estate team, as well as a community facility.

The council would fund the purchase through a loan for the value of the building, plus more cash needed to cover renovation costs.

The need for the town council to buy the building would be a cost-cutting measure to save money on rent, which is currently of around £16,000 per year.