Cumbria submits £19.5m Levelling Up Fund bid
Upgrades to 30 kilometres of highways are the central focus of Cumbria County Council’s application for cash from the £4.8bn government programme.
Cumbria said it would use the £19.5m to improve the A590 through Barrow-in-Furness, A595 south of Sellafield, and A5086 between Cockermouth and Egremont. These upgrades would include carbon reduction measures, drainage works, bridge repairs, and resurfacing.
“The government’s Levelling Up Fund is designed to invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life, and these schemes would do just that,” said Cllr Keith Little the county council’s cabinet member for highways and transport.
Little continued: “The plans will provide a more resilient highway network, improving access to employment opportunities and services which are essential to help connect people with the places they need to get to.”
Simon Fell MP for Barrow & Furness also voiced his support for Cumbria’s application.
“This bid is hugely important to improving the quality and reliability of both the A590 and the A595,” he said.
“Most people reading this will have sat in traffic as a result of a failure on one of these two roads and this bid to the government’s Levelling Up Fund, if successful, will drive down such incidents and give us all a more reliable, and safer, road network for years to come.
Cumbria County Council is one of more than 20 North West authorities who have requested funding. According to Place North West’s calculations, the region has requested more than £775m from the Levelling Up Fund.
This is the second round for the Levelling Up programme, which awarded North West authorities around £232m in its first round last year. The government is expected to announce the allocations for this second round of Levelling Up Fund bids in the autumn.
