A tale of two bridges!

As most of you will know from news bulletins, here in the Lake District we have been affected by exceptionally heavy rain which caused pockets of flood damage. Our first priority work-wise had to be making sure that anything dangerous is repaired or signed as quickly as possible. If we put a danger sign in place, it is because it IS dangerous to use. I’ve had my fencing barrier at Watendlath packhorse bridge taken down twice and have had to use valuable time to put it back when I could have been using that time to be building a new bridge. That’s not only frustrating but it actually delays my being able to complete a new bridge for walkers to safely use.

My brother works for the National Park Authority and they’ve had fences and warning signs taken down in places where walkers think there is no danger. They are putting themselves at risk when they do this but, what is worse, is that people who follow later no longer have the warning signs and may be at risk because of the actions of others.

There are not many stretches of damaged paths and we are making them accessible as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, please do not ignore or remove warning signs and barriers. They are not forgotten and are there for everybody's safety. Before Christmas we built a footbridge alongside the damaged Watendlath packhorse bridge. This is one of our oldest built structures within Borrowdale so we have scaffolding in place at present to brace it and support it. It will take some time but it will be repaired or rebuilt.

Daisy here: I’m sick of the rain!