Cumbria County Council will continue to provide key services over the Christmas period - but some of its offices - including the Head Office in The Courts, Carlisle - are closed for the Christmas week from Christmas Day until New Year's Day inclusive.
Here are details of opening times, out-of-hours contacts, provisional arrangements and other relevant information.
Adult Social Care
Services will operate as usual up until 4:30pm on 24th December. Offices will be closed over Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Offices will be open as normal on 27th, 28th and 31st December, but closed over the weekend and on 1st January. Services return to normal on 2nd January.
During closure periods, the social care out-of-hours number - 01228-526690 - can be used 24-hours a day for adult social care emergencies.
Children's Services (for children's social care) Services will operate as usual up until 24th December.
The office on 5 Portland Square will be open until 5pm on 24th December and then close until 2nd January.
The social care offices in each of the districts (3 Alfred Street North, Carlisle; Friargate, Penrith; New Oxford Street, Workington; Somerset House, Duke Street, Whitehaven; County Offices, Kendal; Market Street, Barrow-in-Furness) will close at 5pm on 24th December, reopen on 27th, 28th and 31st December (opening times 9am - 5pm) and be closed all day 1st January, before reopening as normal on 2nd January.
During closure periods, the same out-of-hours number as above - 01228-526690 - can be used 24-hours a day for children's social care emergencies.
Recycling
Household Waste and Recycling Centres will all be open throughout the Christmas season with the exception of Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Those sites open on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve will be closing at 3pm. Otherwise they will be open at the usual opening hours shown below:
Rothay Holme, Ambleside. 8am - 4pm, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
Canal Head, Kendal. 8am - 4pm, seven days a week.
Morecambe road, Ulverston. 10am - 6pm, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Guides Lot, Grange-over-Sands, 8am - 4pm, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Yeathouse Quarry, 8am - 4pm, closed Tuesdays only.
Redhills, Millom. 8am - 4pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Flusco, Penrith. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Hobsons Lane, Kirkby Stephen. 8am - 4pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Glasson Ind Estate, Maryport. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Clay flatts, Workington. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Syke Park, Wigton. 8am - 4pm, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
Barrow, 8am - 4pm, seven days a week.
Bousteads Grassing, Carlisle. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
For lots of festive recycling information visit http://www.recycleforcumbria.org/ (external link) or call the helpline on 0845 055 1118.
Cumbria Highways
The Highways Hotline, a 24-hour emergency and winter maintenance service will, as always, be provided by Cumbria Highways throughout Christmas and New Year on 0845 609 6 609 for reporting highways problems.
During public holidays over the Christmas period, calls should be limited to serious highways problems such as flooding, landslips and severe weather.
Supervisors will be on duty day and night at the county’s main highways depots and dozens of other staff will be on-call throughout the holiday period to deal with highways issues such as severe weather problems.
Windermere Ferry
The ferry will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It will run on New Year's Day between 10am and 5.30pm. Otherwise, the ferry will operate its usual service, crossing between Ferry Nab at Bowness and Ferry House at Far Sawrey every 20 minutes each way between 6.50am and 8.50pm Monday to Saturday and between 9.50am and 8.50pm on Sunday.
Libraries
All libraries will be closed for the full Christmas week from 4pm on 24th December. Normal opening hours will resume on 2nd January.
Community meals
The community meals service will be operating as usual over the Christmas period. Contacts are:
North - Barbara Wildey/Pam Poyser 01228-607693 South - Lynda Bonner 01229-894338 West - Anne Turner 01900-325880.
Media Enquiries
The Media Team is operating an emergency-only service for urgent media enquiries between 22nd December and 1st January. We will not be handling any routine enquiries during this period.
For Dec 22 contact Media Officer Justin Hawkins on 07966 116947 For Dec 23 contact Media Officer Alison Lister on 07966 116948 For Dec 24 - 25 contact Media Officer Mark Graham on 07966 116949 For Dec 26 contact Media Officer Justin Hawkins on 07966 116947 For Dec 27-28 contact Media Manager Gareth Cosslett on 07973 811206 For Dec 29 - 30 contact Media Officer Alison Lister on 07966 116948 For Dec 31 contact Media Manager Gareth Cosslett on 07973 811206 For Jan 1 contact Media Officer Mark Graham on 07966 116949
ENDS
Media enquiries to Gareth Cosslett, News Manager on 01228 606332