House prices
Westmorland and Furness house prices hit a record £230,449
The district average reached £230,449 in July, the highest the index has recorded. But June's 11.1% rise has since been revised down to 10.1%.
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Planning
Arnold Clark site, Kendal: self-storage decision Thursday
Officers back self-storage in part of the empty Mintsfeet Road garage, against objections from the council's own highways and flood teams. Decision Thursday.
Community
Burneside playground reopens, Windermere skatepark next up
Hall Park in Burneside is open again, a Kendal playground and the Queen's Park skatepark are in procurement, and Kendal's pump track is advancing.
Kendal Museum
Kendal Museum wins £100,000 to work with Kenya's Nandi
Kendal Museum takes £100,000 from the Esmée Fairbairn fund, joint-largest of six June awards, for a two-year project on the collection in its closed gallery.
Kendal
Kendal Mountain Festival: 19-22 Nov, passes from £25
The 2026 festival runs Thursday 19 to Sunday 22 November. A weekend pass is £205, day passes start at £25, and the film programme is not out until mid-October.
Kendal
Kendal Christmas lights switch-on: Friday 27 November
Kendal BID has set the switch-on for Friday 27 November 2026 in Market Place, times still to be confirmed. Its listings disagree on the December market date.
Kendal
Kendal fireworks 2026: no town display announced yet
Bonfire night is Thursday 5 November. Kendal Rugby Club's display is not on sale and its calendar is empty, but Low Wood Bay's 7.30pm display is bookable now.
Kendal
Kendal Torchlight postponed for 2026, back in 2027
Organisers paused the 26 September carnival on 5 May, blaming rising costs and lost funding. Their website still counts down to a procession that will not run.
Kendal
Heart of Kendal: £12.8m of £13m now due in one year
£1.366m of this year's Heart of Kendal budget moves to 2027/28, leaving £250,000 for 2026/27. Cabinet is asked to sign the change off on 8 September.
Staveley
Staveley: 25 Crookfields homes done, none listed yet
The third phase of Crookfields in Staveley is finished, helped by a £300,000 council grant. Castles & Coasts has not advertised any of the homes yet.
House prices
House prices here rose 11.1%, 4th fastest in England
Only three of England's 295 districts rose faster in the year to June 2026. The Westmorland and Furness average is now £230,066, £248 below its record.
What's On
Westmorland County Show 2026: free Kendal bus, £23 tickets
Gates open at 8am on 9 and 10 September at Crooklands. Book by 8 September for £23 adult tickets, and take the free half-hourly bus from Kendal Bus Station.
Local Info
Kendal Bin Days: Bank Holiday Puts Every Round a Day Late
Monday 31 August pushes every Kendal collection a day later all week. Garden waste now costs £60 a year, and Canal Head tip opens 8am to 4pm every day.
Kendal News is written for Kendal and the south Lakes: the town itself, then Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside and Grange-over-Sands, and the villages of the Kent and Lyth valleys between them.
The council is Westmorland and Furness, created on 1 April 2023 out of the old South Lakeland, Eden and Barrow districts. It is a wide authority that also reaches Penrith and Barrow-in-Furness, places with little in common with Windermere, and it decides bins, council tax and much of what happens on the roads. Planning is more complicated: inside the national park boundary most applications are decided by the Lake District National Park Authority instead. We say which body a decision came from, every time.
What is covered
- House prices: what homes actually sold for, by postcode and property type, from Land Registry records.
- Trains to London: journey times, fares and what is really at Kendal and Oxenholme stations.
- Roadworks and travel: the closures booked in now, the flood scheme, and car park charges.
- Planning news: the 491-home application off Burton Road, and the Local Plan that must find room for 26,000.
- Things to do in Kendal: verified prices and opening hours, including the museums that are currently shut.
Every fact carries a link to the document it came from.