Lake District to get £3million to fix flood damaged rights of way

Benjamin Haworth

Remember last year's flood madness?

Lake District receives £3m recovery cash boost to help the region recover from the infamous floods of 2015.

>>> Seven reasons Lake District mountain biking is amazing

In December 2015, severe flooding hit the Lake District. 562km of rights of way were affected, leaving the Lake District National Park (LDNP) with a repair bill of £5.8million.

  • ·257 missing or damaged bridges in need of replacement or significant repair.
  • 165 public paths with surface damage, undercutting or that were lost to river action.
  • 108 damaged pieces of access furniture, such as gates, stiles, signs.

Some trail repairs have been carried out already this year but these were only made possible by donations from organisations such as Friends of the Lake District and out of the LDNP’s reserves.

LDNP have just confirmed a £3million grant to start their ‘Routes to Resilience’ 18-month flood recovery programme.

This cash injection has come from the Rural Payments Agency’s ‘Cumbria Countryside Access Fund’, using funding from the European Rural Development Programme. An additional £500,000 has been allocated to Cumbria County Council and £500,000 to The Canal and Rivers Trust.

nan-bield

How you can help

Go and visit the Lakes!

Tourism is the lifeblood of the Lakes and it needs folk visiting. You can either choose one of the dozens of classic natural routes – which are surprisingly weatherproof – or you can visit one of the trail centres such as Whinlatter or Grizedale.

Even with the £3million there’s still more money to found to repair things back to how they were before the floods. People are invited to make individual donations towards the repair through the donations page on the LDNP’s webpage.

Richard Leafe, Chief Executive of the LDNP, said: “This year we’ve made a start on repairing some of the areas most affected by the floods, but with limited funding from our own resources and donations, it’s been a challenge. This £3m is fantastic news. It will allow us to launch our extensive recovery programme that will not only reconnect flood-damaged public rights of ways, but also make them more robust and resilient for the future.

“We are confident Routes to Resilience will benefit everyone who enjoys the Lake District and also bring a much-needed boost to the local economy. Our park rangers are ready to get started to reconnect the Lake District!”