Cumbria Community Foundation - Furness: Opportunities and Challenges 2021

F U R N E S S – O P P O R T U N I T I E S & C H A L L E N G E S 32 Challenges: n Improving connectivity – road, rail and digital. n Overcoming isolation, particularly in rural areas, caused by the withdrawal of bus services and aggravated by high fares where services remain. n Encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles given the lack of public charging points and the preponderance of terraced housing without off-street parking. Transport and connectivity Isolation has always been an issue for Furness. It was also able to reinstate the vital route from Conister through to Barrow as a community-run bus service in 2019. Funding from the Community Foundation has helped subsidise operator costs. Barbara Harris, a founding member of the Friends of the X112 group, said: “We need to raise £20,000 a year as a group. The bus route is vital and a lot of elderly people use it so that they can have someone to talk to. For them it’s as important as a health visitor because loneliness is a big issue.” The A590 - the main link between Furness and the M6 motorway - has been improved with bypasses for Dalton-in-Furness and at High and Low Newton but the road is only partially dualled. Accidents can cause long delays. The other principal route is the A595, a commuter corridor for Furness workers travelling to the Sellafield nuclear site and for those in Millom employed at BAE Systems in Barrow. This is a slow and dangerous road although funding has been announced to remove a notorious bottleneck near Grizebeck where it passes between farm buildings. Poor road connectivity is not simply an inconvenience. It is a disincentive to inward business investment and limits travel-to-work and travel- to-learn opportunities as well as access to health services and education opportunities. Northern Tidal Power Gateways’ proposal for a crossing of Morecambe Bay would shorten journey times to the M6 but the scheme faces objections on environmental grounds and has yet to win government backing. The main rail link from Barrow to the West Coast Main Line at Lancaster has Furness stations at Roose, Dalton and UIverston. Trains run hourly and some continue to Manchester Airport. Urban and inter-urban services are good but many rural routes have disappeared leaving some communities with no buses other than school services, isolating those without a car. The Friends of the X112 group was set up in 2014 to support two bus routes when council subsidies ended. In that time, the charity has raised more than £100,000 to continue operating the services. O P P O R T U N I T I E S n Much of Low Furness has access to good public transport and most homes are within easy travelling distance of essential services. n Promoting community transport initiatives such as Fellrunner and Western Dales, which have been successful in other rural areas of Cumbria. n Promoting community broadband initiatives such as B4RN, which has provided ultra-fast broadband to rural communities in Lancashire and some parts of Cumbria.