Storm Desmond Path Repairs Complete

19 February 2019, 11:05 | Updated: 19 February 2019, 11:06

It's taken more than three years and more than £3million, but repairs to public paths damaged during Storm Desmond are as good as finished.

Nearly 50,000 metres of footpaths were swept away by flooding in late 2015.

More than a hundred footbridges and dozens of gates and stile were destroyed too.

Now the LDNPA and the County Council says the major repairs are complete.

They marked the occasion at Greenhead Gill bridge near Grasmere earlier, one of the final bridges to be replaced.

Cllr Celia Tibble, Cumbria County Council Cabinet member for Environment, said: “The council’s Countryside Access team have done a fantastic job repairing many of the paths and bridges on Cumbria’s rights of way network which were damaged during Storm Desmond. It’s been a mammoth task which has involved countless hours spent inspecting sites, finalising our successful funding bid to the RPA and getting work carried out on the ground. It’s important that we maintain these routes so that local people and visitors can enjoy the county’s magnificent landscapes.”