Reinstate the A591 between Grasmere and Keswick as a matter of Urgency

The Lake District is the country's most lucrative tourist spot after London. The damage caused by the December floods to the A591 have effectively haemorraged the cash flow to vital tourist towns. And yet the Government tell us that the necessary repairs cannot and will not be finished until May.... The Lake District holds such a special place in the hearts of so, so many people and just now, like poor Peter Rabbit, both the place and the people must be feeling 'given up for lost' and more than ready to 'shed big tears'. The Lake District holds not only hearts but also livelihoods.... The owners of the Lakeland businesses are not just 'playing shops' for a hobby or pastime.... Whole families take part in the day to day running, organising, stocktaking and customer relations, and with no reasonable access for tourists (the A591), shops and businesses will be bankrupted and some very special places, for example the famous 'Grasmere Gingerbread Shop' will close and may never be able to re-open. Grasmere without the gingerbread? A whole generation of children who will never know the bedtime rhyme 'to bed to bed and dream about the gingerbread'?. The Government appear to be happy with their role of Mr McGregor, and unless the necessary repairs to the A591 are completed quickly, then many traditional Lakeland shops and shop owners, may just end up if not actually put into a pie, then either exiled or left to fade sadly away to a derelict whisper on the fellsides.