Toon legend's home destroyed in floods

Nov 29 2009 Sunday Sun

It’s business as usual for tourism

TOURISM bosses in Cumbria are reassuring thousands of visitors that Christmas is far from cancelled in the county, despite the devastation caused by the floods.

The festive season is one of the busiest periods in the county’s annual tourism calendar, with Christmas and New Year particularly important to businesses, but the flooding last weekend has caused confusion among tourists over which places are unaffected.

Cumbria Tourism has now installed a series of special visitor helplines at its headquarters in Staveley to give visitors up-to-the-minute advice and reassurance and to let them know there are hundreds of businesses open and waiting to welcome them as normal.

The telephone line – 01539 825070 – is directly in touch with hotels, B&Bs, cottage companies and guest-houses, visitor attractions, and the industry.

Ian Stephens, chief executive of Cumbria Tourism, said: “There is no doubt that thousands of visitors could now be wondering whether to visit. The message from Cumbria is a thousand times “yes.”

“What will cause more damage than the weather now are knee-jerk cancellations because of what people have seen or read.

“People must remember that this is England’s third biggest county.

“Only a very small area has been disrupted on the scale they have seen and heard about.”

Meanwhile, Army engineers started work yesterday on building a footbridge which will reunite a flood-hit community.

Householders in the Northside area of Workington have been cut off from the town’s south side after floods smashed and damaged bridges.

They currently face long detours to be able to get to the town centre or local schools and supermarkets.

While their colleagues ready the ground beside the River Derwent, soldiers of 3 Armoured Engineer Squadron (part of Tidworth-based 22 Engineer Regiment) began to put together sections of the temporary bridge at Halton military training camp, near Lancaster.

The 110-ton, 167ft (51m) bridge will soon be transported to Cumbria by troops from the Royal Logistic Corps. Army engineers will then begin to install the bridge on site.

It is hoped the footbridge, positioned upstream of the condemned Calva Bridge, will be open to the public by December 5.