Stage 2 passes Bowness, the Lyth Valley and Milnthorpe on Saturday 3 July 2027. Hosting will cost £4.004m, and the council has now signed the agreement.
Westmorland and Furness Council has signed up to host part of Stage 2 of the 2027 Tour de France, at an estimated cost of £4.004m. The decision record was signed on 25 September and published on 8 October. (Westmorland and Furness Council, officer delegated decision record)
The riders come through the district on Saturday 3 July 2027. The stage starts in Keswick and finishes on The Strand in Liverpool the same day. (Westmorland and Furness Council, 15 January 2026)
The council’s own description of the route through its area is:
- south from Keswick past Thirlmere, Grasmere, Rydal Water and Windermere
- on to the A5074 just beyond Bowness
- through the Lyth Valley to the A590 and the A6
- through Milnthorpe and Beetham into Lancashire
Kendal itself is not on the route. The nearest points are the A5074 in the Lyth Valley, about four miles west of the town, Bowness, about eight miles to the north west, and Milnthorpe, about seven miles south on the A6.
What the council has agreed to do
The council is not hosting a stage start or a stage finish. Because the route crosses its area, it has to act as a Host Authority and sign a Hosting Agreement with Grand Départ 2027 Ltd, the company delivering the UK stages. The record says negotiations took “many weeks”.
The agreement puts five areas of responsibility on the council:
- people and planning
- highways, meaning the route
- local authority operations, described as “business as usual”
- marketing, communication and promotion
- an impact programme
Inside those, the council lists twelve jobs it has to deliver, and says the first seven are “essential operational requirements”:
- highways maintenance
- traffic management
- hostile vehicle mitigation
- barriers, security and stewarding
- toilets
- radio communications
- towing
- signage and wayfinding
- spectator and travel modelling
- big screens
- local marketing and communications
- social impact and creative cultural programmes
The council has set up a gold, silver and bronze command structure to run the day. Items 8 to 12 will be developed with the Cumbria Combined Authority, Cumbria Tourism, community groups and employers, and the council says their scope and scale are flexible.
One condition mattered. On 20 July 2026 the Leader agreed to take part only if the council would not have to remove and replace infrastructure for the race. The record says that condition has been met: “the negotiations have been concluded with no requirement for the Council to remove or replace the infrastructure.”
The council is also signing a Master Services Agreement with the organisers. That lets equipment and services be bought centrally for all the host authorities, and the record says every host authority has agreed to it. It does not commit the council to anything on its own: each purchase needs a separate statement of work, signed off under the council’s procurement rules.
What it costs and who pays
The total anticipated cost is £4.004m:
- capital spending of £2.124m
- revenue spending of £1.880m
The record says this is based on “the minimum activity required to host the event”, with a 10% contingency built in.
The funding comes from four places:
- £2.124m of capital from the Cumbria Combined Authority’s highways allocation
- £1.564m of revenue funding from the Combined Authority
- £0.357m from the council’s own existing budgets
- £0.050m for spectator management, which is “dependent on funding being sourced”
So about £3.69m of the £4m is expected from the Combined Authority. That money is not yet formally agreed. The record says the council will sign the Hosting Agreement before the Combined Authority agrees to fund the costs for 2026/27 and 2027/28, and that a separate three-way funding agreement with the Combined Authority and Cumberland Council will follow.
The record also warns that some risks are not in the budget and “could cost more than the contingency”, naming “a short notice change of route due to local reasons”.
Three appendices are withheld from the public: the legal advice, the budget breakdown and the draft Hosting Agreement itself. The council says disclosing them would reveal financial or business affairs and legal advice.
Road closures on the day
The record says the race “will require a series of Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders” for road closures, and that a traffic management plan will be developed with the emergency services, bus operators and affected communities. No order has been advertised yet, and the hours of closure have not been published. The record notes that council staff will be needed on the Saturday and in the evenings.
We will carry the closures on our Kendal roadworks and travel page when they are published.
What it means for you
- The roads named in the route will shut for part of Saturday 3 July 2027. For Kendal that means the A591 towards Windermere, the A5074 through the Lyth Valley, the A590 where the A5074 joins it near Levens, and the A6 through Milnthorpe. If you need to get south or west that day, plan around it.
- Nothing is booked yet. The traffic orders, the diversion routes and the spectator plan all come later. The council says a town and parish council briefing is being arranged and that the organisers have produced more than 40 toolkits for communities and businesses.
- The bill is mostly the Combined Authority’s, on the council’s figures, but the council has signed before that funding is confirmed.
- The council put the Grand Départ trophy on show at Westmorland County Show on 9 and 10 September. Its release for that said the race draws 10 to 12 million roadside spectators a year and is broadcast in more than 180 countries. (Westmorland and Furness Council, 4 September 2026)
One small point on the paperwork. The decision record dates the Leader’s decision to 20 July 2026 in its main text, lists the signed Leader Decision Record under 20 August 2026 in its background documents, and the council’s online summary gives the date as 20 July 2027. We have used 20 July 2026, which is the date the record itself relies on.
Parking in Bowness and Windermere on a race day will be the practical problem for anyone going to watch. Our parking in Kendal page covers the council car parks, and trains to London covers Oxenholme and the Windermere branch, which is the obvious way to get to the lake without a car.
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