Cumbria County Council Christmas and New Year service arrangements for 2010.

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 December 27th and will reopen on Tuesday January 4th.

Here are details of opening times, out-of-hours contacts, holiday cover arrangements and other relevant information.

Adult Social Care

Residential and home care services operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Adult Social Care offices opening hours are as follows:

Friday 24 December - Open 9am to 4.30pm

Christmas Day - Closed

Boxing Day - Closed

Bank Holiday Monday 27 December - Closed Bank Holiday Tuesday 28 December - Closed Wednesday 29 December - Open 9am - 5pm Thursday 30 December - Open 9am - 5pm New Year's Eve - Open 9am - 4.30pm New Years Day - Closed Sunday 2 January 2010 - Closed Bank Holiday Monday 3 January - Closed Tuesday 4th January 2010 - Open 9am - 5pm

When offices are closed, the social care Out of Hours Emergency Service on 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 normal up to and including 24th December.

The head office, Portland Square, Carlisle, will open until 4.45pm on 24th December and then close until 4th January.

The social care office:  Market Street, Barrow will close on 24th December, reopen on 29th, 30th and 31st December and then close until 4th January.

The Nan Tait Centre, Abbey Road, Barrow will close from 24th December and reopen 4th 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 Recycling Centres (HWRCs) will all be open as usual throughout the Christmas season with the exception of Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, when they will be closed. They will also close at 4pm on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

Otherwise they will be open at the usual opening hours shown below:
Ulverston, Morecambe Road - 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.
Barrow,Walney Road - 8am - 6pm, seven days a week.

For lots of festive recycling information visit resourcecumbria.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 and archives

All libraries (except Carlisle library) and archives offices will be closed from 1pm on Christmas Eve and normal opening hours will resume on January 4th 2011.

Carlisle library will be open at the following times:

Wednesday 29th September 10am – 4pm

Thursday 30th December 10am – 4pm

Friday 31st December 10am – 1pm

 

Community meals

Community Meals operates as usual except for the bank holidays when there’s a restricted service (meals will only be delivered on certain rounds).

The administrative offices will be closed on the following week days:

Moorfield Street, Barrow Office (Barrow & South Lakes) – closed Dec 27th, 28th and Jan 3rd. Office opening hours 9am – 3pm.

Trading Standards

Cumbria Trading Standards' Consumer Direct helpline (08454 04 05 06) will be open until 1pm on Christmas Eve, closed on Dec 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, and Jan 1st. It will be open until 4pm on Dec 31st.

Cllr Eddie Martin, Leader of Cumbria County Council, said: "The county council will, as ever, be maintaining essential services over the Christmas break. That means caring for vulnerable people, treating and maintaining the highways network, firefighters being on call and all the other essential services we provide. I'd like to thank all those people who will be sacrificing valuable family time to safeguard and serve others."