AN MP is calling for urgent talks with Government in a bid to protect businesses and communities along an erosion-hit coast road.

Workington MP Sue Hayman has requested urgent talks with the head of the Environment Agency over the future of the B5300 between Maryport and Silloth.

And she has pledged to call for an urgent meeting with the new environment secretary, once a new Prime Minister is in post.

She is calling for long-term action to protect the road, a section of which reopened this week after coastal erosion forced a four-month closure.

The affected stretch of the coast has been designated in official documents as being for "managed retreat" but Mrs Hayman says the situation is not good enough.

She added: "Nobody seems to know what managed retreat means and what it means for the communities.

"It's a really important issue because we don't have many alternatives. There aren't many other good roads that people can go along, and we know that communities get badly cut off when that road is closed. We have businesses along there that are really struggling."

Mrs Hayman holds quarterly meetings with the county council and parish councils from across the area and said she intends to call on the Environment Agency to attend the September meeting to help come up with a proposed solution.

She said: "I'd like to get an agreed way forward so I can press the Government and minister for funding so we can properly protect that road for the future."

Mrs Hayman's intervention has been welcomed by businessman Bill James, whose Bankmill Visitor Centre at Beckfoot has suffered from the prolonged closure.

He said: "It's very important.

Dubmill Point has got to be held because there is so much land beyond it that's below sea level."