"For once, I feel that I've had a decent outlay from my council tax and Workington has had a LOT of money spent on it."
Oh how grateful we must all be to the dithering council and their `experts.`
Only people power eventually got them motivated.
We were bombarded with one excuse after another by the councils both CCC and Allerdale.

In reply to Dave Roberts, yes I do have quibbles, it could have been done faster, why did we have to get a petition to No 10 before they started to do anything, why have they gone for a 1 at a time approach? Surely Calva and the new bridge could have been worked on at the same time, why take 3 years? The people of Workington said right from the start that nothing was moving fast enough, I personally think that the Coucil (of the time) should be ashamed for taking so long. As to the contractors building the bridge (and those who built the others) along with the Army, big thumbs up we appreciate it.

I seem to remember the council always said it was going to take around three years to buld Northside, so why is everyone acting so surprised and outraged?
Restoring Workington has been a bit like building a jigsaw and Northside was always going to be the last, and biggest, piece.
The list of jobs that Cumbria County Council did was, in order:
1. Get the army in to build Barker's Crossing footbridge.
2. Build the temporary road bridge.
3. Rebuild Calva.
4. Rebuild Navvies.
5. Rebuild Northside.
Does anyone have any quibbles with this list of priorities? And does anyone living in the real world who appreciates the first thing about procurement, planning and civil engineering really think they've done such a bad job?
For once, I feel that I've had a decent outlay from my council tax and Workington has had a LOT of money spent on it.

sorry but it realy boils my pee every time i look at the sign and see 'WE ARE INVESTING 11? MILLION INTO YOUR COMMUNITY".......HELLO IT IS OUR BLOOMIN MONEY! THEY MAKE IT SOUND AS IF THEY ARE PAYING FOR IT OUT OF THERE OWN POCKETS!

I dont want the bridge to be named after Bill Barker. Tragic what happened to him of course but I beleive Northside Bridge or new Bridge (New Bridge Road remember) is much better.

Great to see the progress when i drove under this morning - well done to the workers:)

Is the bridge still going to be named after PC Barker? Non of the signs either side of the bridge even mention his name. I hope the council are not going to leave the temporary footbridge the only thing they name after him.

Is the fact that its taken 2 years for the work to start, no one is criticising the workers building the bridge or forgetting the events that led to us needing a new bridge. The deadline has slipped to summer, by the time the road re-opens it will be nearly 3 years since the bridge collapsed. Is that really good enough? The work is now progressing well and I look forward to the bridge re-opening but remember the massive campaign involving thousands of local signatures on a petition delivered to No 10 to get things rolling, thats what people are still annoyed about.

Its nice to see someone has reminded all of you who have moaned and complained on here the reason the bridge is having to be rebuilt. For once have a little bit of gratitude for things going to plan, forget the really trivial complaints which are in the grand scheme of things just that ... Trivial!!!

Looking at bridge on I pad it reminds me I think last time any thing was done which I worked on was when it was lifted and relayed I think I was 18 at the time I am now 70 so let's hope this one lasts as long