Last updated 13:39, Thursday, 08 May 2008

A NEW highway steward has now been recruited to cover Brampton, Longtown and Gilsland.

The post, which is one of the first to be placed in Cumbria, has been welcomed by both Brampton and Arthuret parish councils.

The highway steward, who is one of 24 to be employed across the county, will be responsible for repairing damaged signs and cutting back vegetation to make signs more visible; cleaning blocked gully gratings; weeding; carrying out emergency repairs to pot holes; servicing street lighting; reporting inconsiderate behaviour such as mud on the road, vandalism, and removing illegal signs.

A spokesman from Cumbria County Council said: “We have now appointed someone to the role and will soon be holding a special event where all the local parish, district and county councillors – and other key stakeholders – will get to meet and start to build good working relations with the new steward.”

Cumbria Highways will soon have 24 stewards serving communities in rural areas around the county as part of a £1 million a year investment from their highways budget.

At a meeting of Brampton parish council last week, councillors agreed to appoint clerk Alison Riddle as a co-ordinator to field reports from local people.

Chairman Judith Pattinson said: “This should be a real benefit to the whole parish.

“Before, if we needed something like this done, we would have gone on a waiting list.”