National Highways to reschedule Briefing sessions on Moresby Embankment after communications "Disaster"

National Highways is apologising to West Cumbrians and rescheduling public information sessions about planned work on the Moresby Embankment section of the A595 just north of Whitehaven after letters telling residents about the sessions were sent out much too late by a supplier.

It has been known for several years that sooner or later there will have to be engineering work done to resolve drainage issues on this stretch of road. It is safe at the moment but if nothing were done the impact of water movement in the area would eventually undermine the road's foundations - and an unplanned closure of this stretch of road would cause catastrophic disruption for West Cumbria.

Following years of discussion between Cumbria County Council and National Highways, we were told earlier this year that National Highways have now decided to do some preparatory work this year and then carry out the main engineering works required to resolve the issue over a number of weekends in Spring and Summer 2023. There will be some improvements to the road at the same time.

I strongly support this approach - it will cause a lot of inconvenience while it is being done but far better to plan it so that this takes place at weekends with a lot of notice given rather than ignore the issue and wait until the road ceases to be safe and has to be closed in an emergency unplanned manner.

However it is critical that the public are fully informed and know what to expect and that the many issues around this are discussed and addressed.

National Highways has had a number of consultations with residents in the immediate area which I understand have been helpful and constructive.

They then planned a series of consultation meetings with the wider community from 3rd October to 14th October (tomorrow) and this is where things have gone horribly wrong.

National Highways placed an order with a supplier several weeks in advance to send out 62,000 letters to residents of West Cumbria with details of the public engagement sessions.

I won't name the supplier or say any more as we understand there may well be a court case about this, but the letters went out far, far too late. It has been generally agreed that this has been a communications disaster.

The letters to my family arrived last Saturday, after all but one of the five consultation events had already happened. Most of the other people I have spoken to also had their letters on Saturday, though more than one person got the letter even later than that.

The one remaining event of those originally planned is to be held tomorrow (14th October) in Cockermouth.

The details are   

Friday 14 October - The Kirkgate Centre, Kirkgate, Cockermouth CA13 9PJ

There will be three drop-in sessions throughout the day: from 11am to 12pm, 1pm to 2pm and 3.30pm to 4.30pm.

As soon as it became clear that the letters had gone out far too late, my colleague Cllr Arthur Lamb wrote to National Highways asking them to set up further public engagement sessions, and I proposed at a Highways Working Group meeting earlier this week that the full group write and endorse his request, which was unanimously agreed.

National Highways have come back today and confirmed that they will do this.

A letter will be sent out to residents apologising and giving details of a new set of public engagement events which will be held in early November.

National Highways did give details of the events on 21st September on their website. The post also gives links to two Teams events next week - on Thursday 20th and Friday 21st October - for those who were unable to attend one of the in-person engagements events. You can find those details, including the links, at

 A595 Moresby improvements - National Highways

I will publish full details of the replacement events here. Watch this space.