RESIDENTS have said that the current closure of Dalston Road is impacting their lives with one saying his business is being badly hit. 

Dalston Road is closed between Peter Lane and Brow Nelson to enable construction of the new Cummersdale roundabout and footbridge for the Carlisle Southern Link Road (CSLR).

The reopening of Dalston Road has been delayed until December at the earliest with the potential for works to last into February next year.

Stephen Hickson, owner of Garden House Nursery in Dalston said: “Some days now we are only seeing one or two customers through the door.!

“Dalston in general is just quiet really. Any passing through traffic is just not happening and so every shop's really not getting the passing trade.

“Originally the works were only supposed to take ten weeks but now it's going to be December or February when they open now so that will be almost a year’s trading for me.

“It's a tough enough time to be a business owner at the moment without all this going on as well.

“In the winter we do Christmas trees and we’re in the dark at the moment as we don't know what to get in because will people bother coming round or will they just call it somewhere on the way here when they're having to do the big detour.

“We just can't work out what to get because we could easily get stuck with a lot that we can’t sell but I just don’t know what to do.”

Mark Stakim who runs Dalston Pharmacy added: "“It’s affecting business – there’s no other way to put it,”

“When some of the pharmacies started to close in Carlisle, people started coming to us because it was easier than going into town.

“When the road closed, it made it twice as hard to come to us as it was to go into town, so we have lost quite a lot of the footfall that we were getting.

“We thought we could put up with the three months that it was originally meant to be closed for but it’s a lot to ask of people to keep coming round the houses to get to us.

“We've just been left in the dark and that's not just me that's pretty much all the businesses in Dalston.”

Dalston resident David Hickson has recently had a hip replacement and said he hasn’t been into Carlisle for several months.

He said: “I can't just get on the bus near where I live and get into the town centre because there’s no buses running as far as I know, and you've now got to walk to Dobbies which is about a mile away to get the bus. That's not acceptable if you've got mobility issues."

“I've had a hip replacement, and I've got chest infections so the only times I've been into Carlisle is for hospital visits and I've got somebody to give me a lift which isn’t sustainable.

“They’re doing all this work, and I just don’t think there’s any point to it all.”

The CSLR will connect Junction 42 of the M6 with the A595 to the west. The route will include new junctions linking existing radial routes into Carlisle and the proposed Garden Village.

The route will include bridges over two main railway lines and the Caldew and Petteril rivers, a network of footways and cycleways and an extensive programme of landscaping and environmental mitigation.

The 8km long road will provide vital infrastructure to relieve congestion in Carlisle and provide the access and network capacity to enable the successful and accelerated delivery of St Cuthbert's Garden Village.

A spokesperson for Cumberland Council said: “The Dalston Road closure remains in effect, and due to the availability of a third-party contractor needed to complete a crucial service diversion, this has caused a significant delay to our original schedule.

“As a result, we now anticipate that Dalston Road will be reopened by December.

“We are aware that the One Network platform currently lists February as the anticipated reopening date.

“This extended timeline has been set as a precautionary measure to allow us to still have temporary traffic lights on the road to complete any outstanding work associated with the reopening which remains our priority if needed beyond December 2024.

“However, we remain committed to completing the work by December and will keep the public informed of our progress.

“We understand the inconvenience this extended closure is causing and appreciate your continued patience as we work to complete these essential infrastructure improvements.”