Business and economic recovery

- There’s been a massive drive to minimise the impact to the tourism industry, which is a vital part of the county’s economy. Cumbria Tourism, with support from the Northwest Regional Development Agency, launched an immediate programme of marketing and PR activity to push winter breaks in Cumbria and to highlight that the county was open for visitors as usual. A winter special offer campaign was launched through www.golakes.co.uk; a high profile advertising campaign has been running across national newspaper titles over the last few weeks; and a series of audio features on enjoying winter in Cumbria are running across national and regional commercial radio stations and consumer websites in the run up to Christmas and into the New Year. The outlook is still positive for the year ahead, with the rise of the ‘staycation’ expecting to continue into 2010. Research carried out by Cumbria Tourism revealed that as many as 72 per cent of the county’s tourism businesses were affected directly or indirectly by the floods and loss of business through cancelled bookings or closure is currently estimated at £2.5 million.   During the worst of the flooding a month ago, accommodation bookings through Cumbria Tourism's website were down 30 per cent, however this trend has now reversed and bookings for December are currently up 16 per cent on the same period last year. 

- Payments have already been made to businesses qualifying for a flood recovery grant. The scheme is being administered by the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce and funded by a £1m injection from the Northwest Regional Development Agency. Cumbria County Council and Government Office North West (GONW) are also helping to co-ordinate the scheme on 0845 00 66 888Advisers are currently working with around 300 businesses looking for support through the grants, which will be available until February 28th 2010.

- A temporary retail and business hub has been established in the Old Job Centre in Cockermouth. Other small businesses displaced through the floods have also had help to find alternative accommodation. 

- In order to help businesses recover from the impact of the damage, Business Rates exemptions has been made available by the district councils for those properties which were closed and unusable as a result of the floods. Revenues teams are also currently processing council tax exemptions. 

- Cumbria County Council is working hard to ensure the Port of Workington is fully open to all shipping.   An emergency dredging campaign will start on Wednesday 23 December to remove large volumes of material deposited by the River Derwent in the Port’s turning basin and access channel. It is expected there will be a return to full operations by mid-January 2010.   In the meantime the commercial Port has re-opened to shipping on a restricted basis, along with the Tidal Harbour. In addition, the Port remains operational for cargo handling and remains fully accessible by road (A596 from the north) and by rail (from north and south).