Last minute news with Penrith Town News & Media

NEWS/MEDIA ROAD CHAOS

Chaos has hit roads in around Penrith with queuing traffic on the A66, M6 and roads in Penrith now occurring almost daily. Leading to calls for action to improve or remove the traffic lights located on Kemplay roundabout and Junction 40 of the M6.

The increase in traffic chaos on the A66 comes as Highways England now rebranded to National Highways are about to launch a public consultation roadshow in September to allow the public to see and discuss plans for the A66 upgrade including Kemplay underpass plans and upgrades to Junction 40. Traffic Chaos has reached beyond Penrith as the A6 south of Penrith through Clifton has also seen issues after Cumbria County council contractors resurfaced the road in May with an experimental system that has failed and resulted in the road melting on multiple occasions. The county council were forced to spread sand and dust on the surface in an attempt to address the melting road however this failed and has resulted in the council contractors having to remove the road surface causing 2 weeks to traffic chaos along the A6 with road closures and works with the 31st of August and the 1st September scheduled for the resurfacing to take place with further closures of the A6 on these days. This has left residents and motorists facing raised iron works and an uneven road surface along the A6 including reports of vehicle damage some residents have blamed on the road condition.

SOAPBOX RACE PLANS

Evolve Penrith have announced plans to launch what they hope will become an annual Soapbox race in Penrith in the summer of 2022. The group have announced the plans and are hoping it will be a boost to the local community and business in and around Penrith and encourage visitors into the town for the event.

They hope to build the event into something that benefits the community, and that individuals, groups and local business can take part in both the building of the soapbox cars and the race as well as the wider event.

NEWTON RIGG WEATHER STATION SAVED

The recent closure of Newton Rigg collage saw a number of organisations evicted from the site by Askham Bryan when they served notice to leave the site including the Met Office who have had a weather station on the Newton Rigg farm just outside Penrith for over 100 years reporting the local weather data that is used as part of the UK national weather monitoring and forecasting data. The weather station was recently removed and attempts to find a new location nearby had failed to find a site suitable.

The new owners of the Newton Rigg site and farm have invited the Met Office to reinstall the weather station back at the original site to enable weather monitoring data to once again be recorded and maintained for the area.