15/12/2008 - Cumbria County Council - Christmas 2008 arrangements : Cumbria County Council

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, holiday cover arrangements and other relevant information.

Adult Social Care
Residential and care services operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, administrative offices will open as normal until 5pm on December 24 and will then be closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the weekend. Offices open as normal on December 29, 30 and 31, but will be closed on January 1 2009 before reopening as normal on 2 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; Oxford Street, Workington; Somerset House, Whitehaven; Condor Block, Kendal; Market Street, Barrow-in-Furness) will close at 5pm on 24th December, reopen on 29th, 30th 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.
Guides Lot, Grange over Sands; Hobson's Lane, Kirkby Stephen; Redhills Quarry, Millom; and Syke Park, Wigton will also be closed on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The county's nine other HWRCs will close at 2pm on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

Otherwise they will be open at the usual opening hours shown below:

Rothay Holme, Ambleside. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Canal Head, Kendal. 8am - 4pm, seven days a week.
Morecambe road, Ulverston. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Guides Lot, Grange-over-Sands, 8am - 4pm, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Yeathouse Quarry, Frizington, 8am - 4pm, seven days a week.
Redhills, Millom. 8am - 4pm, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Flusco, Penrith. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Hobsons Lane, Kirkby Stephen. 8am - 6pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Glasson Ind Estate, Maryport. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Clay flatts, Workington. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Syke Park, Wigton. 8am - 6pm, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.
Barrow, 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Bousteads Grassing, Carlisle. 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.

For lots of festive recycling information visit recycleforcumbria.org or the helpline 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 10.10am 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 except for the six main libraries (Carlisle, Penrith, Kendal, Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington) will be closed from 1pm on Christmas Eve and normal opening hours will resume on January 2nd 2009.
The six main libraries will open to give a limited service on Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th December between 12noon and 4pm. This is the first time the main libraries have opened over the Christmas week.

Archive service
Cumbria Archive Service's four record offices in Barrow, Carlisle, Kendal and Whitehaven will be closing to the public at 1pm on Christmas Eve and reopening as usual on January 2.

Community meals
The community meals service will be operating as usual over the Christmas period - ie meals will be delivered every day. However the administrative offices will be closed at the following times:

Edward Street, Carlisle office (covering Carlisle & Eden) 01228 227693 - closed Dec 25th, 26th and Jan 1st. Office opening hours 9am - 3pm.
Moorfield Street, Barrow office (covering Barrow & South Lakes) 01229 894338 - closed Dec 25th, 26th and Jan 1st. Office opening hours 9am - 3pm.
Lillyhall office (covering Allerdale & Copeland) 01946 506591- closed Dec 25th, 26th and Jan 1st. Office opening hours 9.15am - 2.15pm.

Customer Contact
One Stop Shops in Alston and Wigton will have limited opening hours over Christmas and New Year.

Alston will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, Sunday 29 December, and New Year's Day. It will be open 10am to 1pm on 23 December, and on Christmas Eve and 28, 30 and 31 December it will be open from 10am to 3pm.
Normal opening hours of 10am to 5pm will resume on 2 January.

Wigton's One Stop Shop will be closed from 4pm on 24 December until 8.45am on 2 January.

Cllr Stewart Young, Leader of Cumbria County Council, said:
"Many people who work for the county council will continue to maintain essential services over the Christmas break. They sacrifice valuable family time so that the safety and needs of others are not compromised in any way. The likes of care workers, firefighters and road gritters are the hidden heroes of the festive season. We should all spare a thought for them while enjoying the public holiday."

Media Enquiries
The media office is closed between December 25th and January 1st. An emergency-only service will be operational on the numbers below, but the media office will not be handling any routine enquiries during this period.

For Dec 25-26 contact Media Manager Gareth Cosslett on 07973 811206 For Dec 27-28 contact Media Officer Paul Bell on 07966 116949 For Dec 29-30 contact Media Officer John Ballard on 07795 013872 For Dec 31-Jan 1 contact Media Officer Chris Little on 07966 116947