I know why it is so hard to get a NHS dentist appointment in Cumbria – dentists are spending all their time replacing fillings jarred out by driving on our roads.
Now, having not spent weeks travelling all the corners of our wonderful county, my focus will be on the area I travel daily, the north west corner bordered by Carlisle, Workington and Cockermouth. I did, in September, do one of my Grand Tours with American friends and the cost was a damaged alloy and two new tyres, but that’s another story.
No, the daily grind is along the A596 where I do battle, not only with the potholes but with the lorry after lorry of tree trunks being delivered to Siddick. And while I might want to highlight the flawed argument supporting Biomass albeit alongside commendable investment in West Cumbria, for now I will highlight these HGVs navigating through Aspatria, Crosby and Maryport.
Aspatria is a pleasant little town of just under 3,000 people. It has a few shops and takeaways but narrow streets through which these juggernauts do battle.
The cat has observed, and has photographic evidence, of a haulage company’s artic parked on a zebra crossing and associated zig zags in the town while the driver bought a pie. Okay, he may have been buying a sandwich but he shouldn’t be endangering pedestrians in order to get his carb rush.
Crosby has traffic islands to protect the pedestrian, but these just serve as a slalom for the HGV drivers and woe betide you battle one of these giants in Grasslot. Remember, size means they own the road.
While local councillors have raised the wood lorry issue over the years, nothing has been done. After all, according to a county council report, to divert them via the A595/A66 would add £8 to every journey and simply transfer many of the problems to the Ramsay Brow junction and Derwent Bridge sections in Workington.
The council have spent considerable sums of money on road resurfacing on the A596 and, thankfully, continue to do so having recently completed two sections on Hall Brow and Northside Road in Workington.
So, when are they going to do something about Flimby? Over the years, I can only assume various utility companies have used the A596 through Flimby as a practice road where they put up their traffic lights, dig a hole, fill it in and move on. Then along comes another utility company and does the same. Of course, the holes don’t match, so we double the amount of patched road.
Then along comes the council who do patch repairs on the potholes which doesn’t solve the problem, just creates another pothole a few weeks later, especially when the rain has done its work.
I drive this road twice each day and I now have pet names for some of the potholes and I can, on autopilot, navigate the section by slaloming around some of the worse ones.
Oh, and while I am on it, why do they have bus stops next to pedestrian traffic islands/refuges? As these have mandatory Keep Left signs, it is illegal to go around the bus and traffic island and you must wait until the bus passenger had rummaged through their pockets for cash, stated their destination which means the driver skimming through loads of stops on his ticket machine before dispensing the ticket and giving change. Three people getting on a bus and Flimby is total gridlock.
And as for not seeing a bus for ages and three come along – daily occurrence in Flimby with the 30 and 300 services.
Of course, mega money is being spent on the Torpenhow junction and adding a crawler lane on the A595 at Bothel. On the positive side, it has opened up a wonderful view north west across the Solway Plain to Scotland but was it really necessary to let the southbound car driver pass a lorry and save 20 seconds on their journey?
I am sure readers will know of other ‘Flimbys’ around the county and will know why there are now more alloy wheel repairers than before. But for now, can we have a commitment by the incoming councils to make sure we have an integrated road refurbishment plan that gets all the planned utility work out of the way before we tackle the resurfacing?
In the meantime, I can’t decide… invest in the dental industry or alloy wheel repair? Both seem to have an assured future.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, from 2023, will be back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world.
