My family and I have managed to escape the recent Cumbrian floods unscathed. We've had some bad weather locally but my two sisters, my brother, my Dad and I all live in locations where flooding is extremely unlikely. About the only disruption we've had at home is a loss of telephone and internet service on Friday as a result of Northside Bridge collapsing.
I was due to attend BTCV in Workington on Friday morning and then pop into Northside Community Centre in the afternoon. It took well over an hour to get from Lillyhall into Workington town centre; a distance of less than 3 miles. This was due to the police stopping all motorists entering Workington to ascertain where they were going. I was told that getting to BTCV would be no problem but that to get to Northside I would need to go out via Cockermouth and Maryport.
Anyway, I reached BTCV only to discover that they were closed and rather than attempt to get to Northside I returned home. I texted my boss to say as much and he advised me not to bother coming in on Monday either until he knew for definite how things were going to pan out.
I've been keeping close tabs on the road and bridge closures and whilst getting in and out of West Cumbria via the A66 is still possible. The A595 is closed at Papcastle which is just north of Cockermouth. It's looking likely that to get to work at the moment I will need to head along the A5086 toward Cokermouth and then head east; away from Workington, towards Keswick. Then it depends whether the B5291 is open or not. If it is I could then go along that, to the north of Bassenthwaite Lake and then north on the A591 to Bothel. If the B5291 is closed then I would need to go south to Keswick before then heading north on the A591 towards Bothel. I could then head south on the A595 to the Papcastle roundabout. West on the A594 to Maryport and then finally south on the A596 to Northside. Thus turning a 13 mile journey into somewhere betwwen a 43 to 55 mile journey. Hopefully, inspections will go well and the road up to Papcastle can be reopened. This will mean the route to work becomes only 27 miles.
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