A FORMER district councillor has blasted Cumbria County Council for being too Carlisle-focused. Joss Curwen, who represented Broughton on South Lakeland District Council for nearly three decades, said projects in the south of the county are often over-looked in favour of those in the north. However, Cllr Stewart Young, the leader of CCC, dismissed the claim and said his position was dependent upon support from councillors across Cumbria - support that, he says, is dictated by policies not being too focused on any one area. Anything they want at Carlisle, they seem to get, and it’s not good enough for people down in the south of the county, said Mr Curwen, who represented the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, and also sat as an independent.
A FORMER district councillor has blasted Cumbria County Council for being too Carlisle-focused. Joss Curwen, who represented Broughton on South Lakeland District Council for nearly three decades, said projects in the south of the county are often over-looked in favour of those in the north. However, Cllr Stewart Young, the leader of CCC, dismissed the claim and said his position was dependent upon support from councillors across Cumbria - support that, he says, is dictated by policies not being too focused on any one area. Anything they want at Carlisle, they seem to get, and it’s not good enough for people down in the south of the county, said Mr Curwen, who represented the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, and also sat as an independent.
THE SOUTHERN BYPASS Driving between the west of Carlisle and the south east of the city has long been a drawn-out affair, involving a detour through the city centre or a convoluted route via Dalston. The Carlisle Southern Link Road (CSLR) will end that. CSLR fills the missing piece of ring road around Carlisle, which began with the M6 to the east and continued in 2012 with the Northern Development Route (western bypass). The CSLR – likely to be widely known as the southern bypass – will skirt the south of the city, connecting Junction 42 of the M6 with Wigton Road. Cumbria County Council has launched the process to find a contractor to design and build the five-mile road. The intention is to award the contract next January with the work starting in 2022 and completed by March 31, 2024.