Bringing you the latest news, travel and weather from across Cumbria from Monday 16 November to Friday 20 November, 2020.

BBC Weather

Today will be mainly cloudy windy and mild with a few showers or spots of rain mainly in the morning. Rain develops from the west late.

Temperatures reaching 10C (50F).

This evening looks mainly cloudy with showers or spells of rain, heavy at times tapering off overnight.

And you can find out more about what the weather is like where you are here

Eroded mortar and broken stones on the Ribblehead Viaduct, which opened in 1875, will be repaired.

The eye-watering cost of delivering a fibre network to rural areas.

Cheltenham got back to winning ways on the road with a win at Carlisle.

Barrow score six minutes into added time to draw and stop Cambridge moving top of League Two.

Emma Hunt, who has a life-limiting condition, gives vulnerable and abused women hope through art.

Fundraising for the Great North Air Ambulance dries up in lockdown but gifts from wills double.

Police arrested people in Barrow, London and Coventry who formed the "county lines" network.

BBC Weather

This evening will have clear spells with a few well-scattered showers.

It will then turn mostly cloudy and windy overnight with some showery outbreaks of rain and lowest temperatures from 2C to 5C (36F to 41F).

You can always find the latest, detailed, BBC weather forecast for where you are, by searching for your location here.

Police say Operation Horizon has led to Barrow being regarded as "hostile" because of the way "county lines" drug dealing networks, in which big city gangs distribute cocaine and heroin in towns across the country, were broken up.

Det Ch Supt Dean Holden welcomed the jail terms handed down to the 33 people convicted of various roles, from taking mobile phone orders and distributing the drugs, to delivering them to addicts on the streets.

“Bringing this many offenders to justice was challenging and complex.

“But the determination, tenacity and skill of all those involved led to a major victory in the battle against county lines drugs criminals in Cumbria."

The county's Police and Crime Commissioner, Peter McCall, said: “It would be naïve to think we had caught all dealers but we need to be clear that we will not tolerate drug dealers coming in to the county, targeting our most vulnerable people."

Today marks a final step in Operation Horizon, in which four police forces from the Met in London to Cumbria combined to break up county lines drug dealing networks.

Launched just under three years ago after more than a dozen people died in Barrow from taking class A drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin, Horizon involved undercover officers posing as buyers over months.

They pieced together the networks that led from runners delivering drugs on the street, to the local dealers taking orders for drugs over mobile phones, back through supply chains to the Midlands and London.

In January last year, coordinated raids brought in 20 people and recovered drugs and cash, followed by other phases to round up people in Barrow who provided accommodation for traffickers bringing in supplies.

The operation also resulted in three people being charged with human trafficking, because they brought vulnerable teenagers into Furness to act as runners.

Through this year a series of trials have dealt with those arrested, with 33 people convicted of various offences, and jail sentences adding up to more than 100 years.

A burglar has been jailed for masterminding a plot to steal tens of thousands of pounds worth of designer clothing from Carlisle’s House of Fraser store.

Image source, Cumbria Police

Carlisle Crown Court heard Ashley Paul Queen, 32, of of Dunmallet Rigg in the city, was first involved in taking £12,500 worth of outdoor clothing from a shop in Ambleside, but police stopped a car involved soon afterwards and recovered the stolen goods, although the occupants fled.

Then, both before and after serving a prison sentence for other offending, Queen led two burglaries at the House of Fraser, taking Hugo Boss clothing valued at almost £17,400 during the first crime, and £10,000 worth of CP Company products on the second.

Queen admitted burgling the Ambleside shop and conspiracy to burgle in Carlisle, and was jailed for 46 months.

One accomplice, Rhys Anthony Robert Wilkinson, 19, of Coalfell Avenue, Carlisle, was sent to a young offenders' institution for 21 months, while another, Jonathan Brown, 28, of Hallin Crescent, Carlisle, had a 20-month sentence suspended for two years.

With pressure mounting on the region’s hospitals due to coronavirus, health leaders in the North East and Cumbria are appealing to the public to only attend A&E or call 999 if they have serious or life-threatening emergencies.

As cases of the virus continue to increase in the area, the NHS is asking people with less serious conditions to seek alternatives to just turning up at their local hospital’s A&E.

The plea is part of the region’s #DoYourBit campaign aimed at raising awareness of others ways of getting medical advice and treatment.

The project, which upcycles old furniture, helps young people gain confidence and new skills.

A Cumbrian project to get rid of plastic in Morecambe Bay has won almost £27,000 of funding for a set of mass "beach cleans".

Image source, Getty Images

Clear The Bay By Day was the only UK scheme to be shortlisted in a public vote, and was up against marine projects in Brazil, Spain and Indonesia.

The charity the Morecambe Bay Partnership will now lead volunteers in a series of clean-up operations around the bay.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

A prominent building in Barrow is being taken over by a charity that recycles white goods.

The Centenary Day centre on Abbey Road has been run by Cumbria County Council, but it will now be transferred to Barrow Domestic Appliances (BDA).

BDA specialises in the re-use and recycling of domestic appliances, carrying out much of its work in deprived areas of the community and helping people with disabilities and living in vulnerable situations.

Paul Fitzpatrick, the BDA chief executive, said: “This is brilliant news for our charity, and for the local community, we can’t wait to get started!”

Grandmother Ann Copley, from Carlisle, died in the collision, near Penrith, in 2018.

BBC Weather

There will be spells of sunshine through the afternoon, but also one or two showers in places in moderate to fresh south-westerly winds with highest temperatures from 8C to 11C (46F to 52F).

You can always find the latest BBC weather forecast for where you are by searching for your location here.

A pensioner from Suffolk who fell asleep at the wheel on the A66 in Cumbria and caused a head-on crash which killed a much loved grandmother has been jailed for a year.

Colin Brown, 78, of Upper Street, Layham, near Ipswich, was in a Renault Master van towing a caravan which veered across the road into an oncoming Citroen C3 near Penrith.

Image source, Google

Carlisle Crown Court heard Brown, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving was heading from his Suffolk home to the Lakes and had taken three breaks during a seven-hour journey.

The collision left Ann Copley, 76, from Carlisle trapped in the car with every bone in her body broken.

Judge Nicholas Barker heard of Brown’s poor health, his own previous family tragedies and considered references, but imposed an immediate 12-month jail term, saying the message must go out that drivers held a responsibility to others.