Council adds insult to injury as it trys to take credit for A684 work

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has today criticised the county council for claiming credit for work at the bottom of Black Horse Hill on the A684, when they still haven't fixed the more dangerous stretch at the Lilymere bends.

Speaking this morning, Tim said: "I'm grateful to the council for carrying out this work on the A684, but in the light of residents concerns about the road surface further up the hill, it's a bit rich for the council to talk about everyone 'benefiting from a much improved road surface'."

Cumbria County Council is spending over £100,000 on the work from the bottom of Black Horse Hill to the junction of the B6257 Firbank Road, which will take place over five nights from Monday 17 February. However the council have refused to fix the surface at Lilymere, which has caused a number of accidents recently, until the summer. Instead, they have installed signs warning drivers of the dangerous surface.

There have been numerous accidents in wet weather at Lilymere, and dozens of constituents have also contacted Tim after near misses. One constituent described it as 'feeling like they were driving on black ice'.

Local residents like Sara Last have set up a petition calling for the A684 to be fixed soon as possible. The petition can be found here: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/A684

Tim continued: "Residents will be rightly puzzled by the council's decision to resurface the road at the bottom of the hill, but not do anything about the surface further up. I understand there are technical reasons why that might be the case, but it adds insult to injury for the council to not admit that while claiming the credit for the work at the bottom of the hill."