2020 has been a year like no other. Here we look back at Cumbria 2020, the highs, lows and the impact of the global pandemic on the county.
As the heatwave continued in July, the government gave the go ahead for pubs, restaurants and hair salons to reopen.
Many hard-hit Lakes businesses saw a welcomed boost from the Staycation market as many Brits looked to holiday within the UK.
The tourism spike and hot weather in areas such as Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Coniston and Kendal led to police issuing a plea to visitors to respect the area.
There was more good news for the area; when Barrow was given £436,994 to tackle crime from the government’s Safer Streets Fund.
Bold proposals to transform Barrow town centre, including a new-look indoor market and food hall, were announced and a £25m funding bid was submitted to the government.
In Ulverston, crowds flocked to the new Marks & Spencer store at Beehive Business Park, a few weeks after Aldi supermarket opened in the town.
Lake District gifts brand Herdy raised more than £7,000 for charity with a special tea towel celebrating the work of key workers during the pandemic. The Herdy Heroes tea towel featured nurses, delivery drivers, teachers, volunteer rescue workers and others.
Therapy sessions with a difference – that was the promise of Sedbergh counsellor Jude Gaddes who planned to do her sessions with CancerCare patients in her 23-year-old campervan!
A project designed to showcase natural flood management techniques and enrich the wildlife of a treasured Kendal park was about to start at Town View Field, beside Nobles Rest park, after years of planning. Also in Kendal, a plan to build more than a dozen new houses south of Underbarrow Road was submitted to the district council.
In Ulverston, Caroline Sim, a bird rescue volunteer, was called to Canal Head after a mute swan was hit by a motorist.
Lakes action group Ambleside Action For a Future also punted the idea of creating a congestion tax for the Lakes.
Members of AAFAF set out ambitious plans to rebrand and market the Lake District as a new ‘green tourist destination’.
As part of its plans the action group wants to: enforce a eco-levy on cars driving into the Lakes; pedestrianise Ambleside town centre; create a sustainable transport hub in King Street, Ambleside; and install electrical vehicle charging points for community use.
AAFAF’s vision for 2025 would also see a significant number of visitors being incentivised to arrive either by train or other public transport.
Ribbons were left outside a Dalton church in a tribute to a dad and two children tragically killed after being hit by a car. Joshua Flynn, 37, his son Coby-Jay Flynn, aged 15, and daughter Skylar Flynn, 12, died on Abbey Road in Dalton on Father’s Day along with the family dog Troy.
In other news four Lake District rowers with a combined age of over 200 years helped set a new world record for the longest ever continuous indoor row. Helen Tucker and Alex Morgan, from Cockermouth, David Pratt, from Borrowdale, and Jane Wall-Budden, from Kendal, contributed almost half-a-million metres to the 10 million metres clocked up during 35 days of round-the-clock effort by 125 rowers across the globe.
A £3.9m competition was launched to find innovative ways to sort and segregate radioactive waste at some of the UK’s oldest nuclear sites. The best applications receive £50,000 for a feasibility study and the eventual winner, £750,000. The competition was launched by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which includes Sellafield Ltd and Magnox Ltd, together with Innovate UK.
And finally, as residents desperately tried to get an appointment in their favourite hair salons, it wasn’t just humans in need of grooming.
A proposal to convert a detached storage property north of Abbey Manor, Barrow, into a dog-grooming salon was approved by the borough council.
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