Last updated at 07:37, Friday, 05 February 2010

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown last night accepted an 8,000-name petition demanding an emergency bridge for West Cumbria.

Workington trader John Bailey, backed by the Times & Star, launched the petition after the November floods wiped out Northside Bridge and damaged Workington Bridge, leaving the town cut in two by the River Derwent.

Mr Brown was asked to help with a permanent footbridge, the continuation of extra train services indefinitely, cash for businesses and co-operative parking policies from Highways, county and local authorities.

People across West Cumbria signed the petition because they felt that a county council promise of late spring for a temporary road bridge was too long to wait and wanted immediate action.

Volunteers collected signatures in Workington town centre, Cockermouth and Maryport.

The name of the contractor to build the bridge is due to be announced on Monday.

The firm will work round-the-clock, but Mr Bailey said that while people had reluctantly accepted the county’s plan, there was still huge frustration.

The petition was presented at Number 10 Downing Street yesterday by Mr Bailey and Nicole Regan, head of content at the Times & Star, in the hope that it will remind the Government not to forget about West Cumbria and make clear the daily struggle thousands face because bridges are still closed, more than two months after the floods.

The visit was organised by Workington MP Tony Cunningham, who is meeting regularly with Mr Brown and said he updated the PM on the situation.

Mr Bailey said: “It is unlikely that any region on mainland Britain has suffered such a dramatic, unplanned loss of road communications since the war.

“Yet the response from the civil authorities seemed of limited ambition, the emergency resolvable by a footbridge and some extra trains, but much more was needed, road bridges were needed.

“This petition is a howl of rage and a plea for help. The situation always was and still is an emergency.

“The temporary road bridge will take less than half the traffic that crossed the town before the flood, and we are facing disruption, chaos and commercial failure for years.”

First published at 06:32, Friday, 05 February 2010
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk