Plans to demolish a Workington pub to make way for a wider road junction have taken a step forward.
The £9.1 million Workington Gateway bid by Allerdale council, which includes other measures, has been backed by county councillors.
Allerdale council has applied to the Government’s £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund to pay for the Ramsay Brow improvements and the development of the walled garden at Curwen Park as an attraction and enterprise hub.
If the bid is successful, the improvements to the junction of the A66 and A596 would see the compulsory purchase and demolition of Henry’s, the pub on the corner of the junction.
The move, Allerdale council said, would help improve access to the Port of Workington for HGVs.
Cumbria County Council’s Local Committee met in Lillyhall on Friday and members were asked to endorse the bid.
Councillors unanimously supported the bid but the county’s cabinet member for highways and transport Keith Little said: “There’s nothing we can do other than support this but I have to say, this will be the third, possibly fourth application that will be put to Government and previous ones have just been rejected without any consideration at all.
“There’s a huge amount of time been spent on this by both county council officers and no doubt Allerdale officers but I think it’s a real shame this because it would be a huge improvement to that area of the town and also supporting HGV vehicles on the east-west journey from the Port of Workington over to the east coast.”
He said that the only option was to support the bid but it was disappointing that Workington has missed out in the past.
Cllr Little said: “It’s ironic isn’t it, Cumbria County Council lost £40 million out of our highways capital improvement programme which Michael Gove in his wisdom has now decided to put into his Levelling-Up Fund and offers county council the opportunity to bid-in to repair potholes, it’s just ludicrous.”
But Mike Johnson, leader of Allerdale council, said: “My understanding is that for the Levelling-Up Fund this is only the second submission, last time we submitted this it was a priority two, we’ve now been moved up to a priority one.
“After our first submission in the priority two round of Levelling-Up funding, we got some very good feedback from Government.
“That’s why it was decided we would submit the same proposal on this second round because we feel it easily could be successful this time and it will make significant in-roads, access to the port and improvements at Ramsay Brow.”
