Cumberland Council have said that work that was ‘unavoidably on hold’ on Dalston Road is now proceeding.

The council have said that they have made ‘good progress’ on the work which is part of the Carlisle Southern Link Road (CSLR) project.

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.

Dalston Road is currently closed between Peter Lane and Brow Nelson to enable construction of the new Cummersdale roundabout and footbridge and is set to reopen in December.

The closure of Dalston Road has angered business owners in Dalston and Stephen Hickson, owner of Garden House Nursery in Dalston said that the closure has ‘massively’ affected his business.

“Some days now we are only seeing one or two customers through the door,” said Stephen.

“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.

“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.”

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.A spokesperson for Cumberland Council said: “The service diversion work by our partner, Electricity North West, has been completed and we are now proceeding with activities that were unavoidably on hold.

“Since the completion of the diversion, we have made good progress, and avoided any delays to the work due to the large beam deliveries last week.

“Over the coming weeks, we will be pouring the footbridge foundations and installing the drainage around the new roundabout. Hopefully the weather stays dry.

“Please note that despite the ongoing works on Dalston Road, businesses in and around Dalston remain open as usual

“We understand the inconvenience the closure continues to have; we are working to minimise the current impact and any future impact.”