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Live Reporting

Martin Lewes

All times stated are UK

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  1. Through the day: BBC Cumbria Live

    Martin Lewes

    Reporter

    So that was Monday - a reminder of the headlines:

    We'll do it all again tomorrow from 08:00. If you have a picture to share or some news you think we should know about, you can email ustweet us or get in touch through our Facebook page.    

    Have a good evening.

  2. Cumbria's weather: Scattered showers, wintry on fells

    BBC Weather

    There'll be more scattered showers tonight - which are wintry on the fells as temperatures dip to 4C (39F).

    Weather graphic

    You can find the latest forecast for where you are, here.

  3. City food firm fined £275k after bacteria is found in meat

    A Carlisle food supplier has been fined more than £275,000 after bacteria was found in its meat.

    Pioneer, which owns three butchers shops and supplies schools and hospitals, admitted 11 health and safety breaches.

    The company said its shops had five star hygiene ratings and the lapse in standards could "never" happen again.

    Pioneer, which operates under the name of PFD Limited, was also ordered to pay costs of £28,907 and a victim surcharge of £120.

    A spokesman for Carlisle City Council said: "The high profile case, and the substantial court fine and costs, sends out a clear message to local food businesses."

  4. Keswick Mountain Festival picks headline acts for live music

    The Keswick Mountain Festival has booked KT Tunstall to headline the live music on 10 June.

    Keswick Mountain Festival stage

    The Friday night will feature Cast and the Peatbog Faeries.

    The festival runs from 8-11 June and also features outdoor activities, speakers, and sports.

  5. Nuclear workers 'will get less under reforms'

    The pensions changes being brought in by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority are simply the way of the future according to financial experts.

    Steve Balmer of David Allen Financial services in Carlisle says the days when your pension was a percentage of your salary on the day you retired, with your employer committed to keeping it up with inflation, are passing fast.

    Quote Message: This privilege of having your retirement sorted by your employer is just a thing of the past." from Steve Balmer Financial expert
    Steve BalmerFinancial expert

    Today most private companies will have contribution-based schemes where the employee, rather than the employer, takes the risk of how much the fund will pay for.

    The NDA, though is offering two other ways of reducing the cost of its pension scheme over the next few years:

    • Career average revalued earnings, where the pension's based not on a worker's final salary, but on the probably lower average salary throughout their career.
    • Pensionable pay cap, where the amount of your salary that can be used to calculate your pensions rises only by 1% a year, not matter how much your salary increases by in reality.

    Mr Balmer says pensions will be lower in either case. He said: "Top and bottom of it is that the pensions will be worse. Most people earn the biggest salary towards the end of their career."

  6. Teenage drink-driver banned after police chase

    A drink-driver has been banned for 18 months for leading police on a high-speed late-night chase in Carlisle.

    Matthew Baty, 19, went through a red light and a "no entry" sign in November.

    Sparks flew from his vehicle as the teenager's Fiat "bounced" along a cobbled street before he lost control and crashed into a garden wall. He was found in a nearby garden.

    Baty, of Walkmill Crescent, Carlisle, admitted drink-driving and dangerous driving, and was given a suspended four-month custodial sentence at Carlisle Crown Court.

    Judge Tony Lancaster ordered him to complete 120 hours' unpaid work and an 18-month driving ban, and take an extended re-test.

  7. Nuclear pensions: Unions call for meeting with ministers

    Trade unions representing about 7,000 nuclear industry workers in Cumbria say they want to meet ministers about changes to the pensions scheme at Sellafield, the Drigg waste storage site and Direct Rail Services.

    Sellafield

    Today they voted to ballot 16,000 staff nationwide on moves by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to replace their final salary pension scheme.

    The NDA says the reforms are in line with government policy but Kevin Coyne from the union Unite said shop stewards were angry with the Treasury.

    He said: "We are now calling for an urgent meeting with the recently appointed energy minister Jesse Norman to discuss what we consider an unnecessary Treasury-led 'raid' which could see our members' pensions slashed by thousands."

  8. Unions: Government is breaking nuclear pension promises

    The  unions now about to ballot their members in the nuclear industry over a strike, say there's no need to reform their pensions.

    The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says it has to take part in government reforms to pensions and save about £660m.

    Quote Message: "Government policy is that all public sector final salary pensions schemes should be reformed by 2018, and four million public sector workers have already moved to new pension arrangements." from Nuclear Decommissioning Authority spokesman
    Nuclear Decommissioning Authority spokesman

    But  Audrey Uppington from the Prospect Union, which represents more than 5,000 Sellafield workers, says they have a pension fund set up when the company was privatised, and it's sufficient to not need reforming.

    "In that privatisation legislation was put in place by the government to protect our pensions, and we see this as the government reneging on promises they have made," she said.

  9. Travel: Penrith traffic slowed by crash

    BBC Travel

    There's been an accident in Corney Square in Penrith around the junction of the A6 and the A592.

    The latest travel news is here.

  10. Tebay rail crash boss is refused haulage licence on safety grounds

    A contractor jailed after four men were killed in a rail maintenance accident at Tebay in 2004, isn't fit to operate road haulage and still does not appear to acknowledge the extent of his negligence, according to a government Traffic Commissioner.

    Police at scene of Tebay fatalties

    Mark Connolly, one of two men jailed after a runaway track vehicle crashed into a group of railway workers, had applied for a restricted goods vehicle operator's licence.

    But after hearing of Mr Connolly's record, and that his vehicle had been stopped without a licence last May, the Transport Commissioner for Wales, Nick Jones, said he was wholly unimpressed with him.

    Refusing the licence, Mr Jones said in his report: "Mark Connolly did not disclose the full circumstances of the (Tebay) offences and has attempted to minimise both their gravity and relevance.  This is an indication of his approach to road safety."

  11. Anger after £900k electronic road signs fail to show south Cumbria road closure information

    North West Evening Mail

    Newspaper

    Questions are again being asked of why almost £900,000 of taxpayers' money has been spent on matrix road signs which aren't displaying information on a south Cumbria road closure.

    Gantry
  12. New rangers hired to fix Lake District flood damage

    Ten new Lake District rangers have been hired to repair damage to paths and footbridges caused by Storm Desmond.

    They'll be doing the ground work for an 18-month project, paid for with a £3m grant from the Rural Payments Agency.  

    Dipper Bridge, Rydal, showing undermined pier.

    Repairs are needed to 64 bridges and more than 100 paths.  This one, at Dipper Bridge in Rydal, has already been fixed.

  13. Listen: James listed for award after baby twins arrive early

    A five-year-old boy from Carlisle could get a national award for being "wise beyond his years" after his mum had premature twins.

    James with the twins

    James Edgar, from Carleton, didn't see his parents for over a week after the twins were born, and again when the baby boy, Luke, suffered repeated breathing difficulties with more hospital visits.

    Since then his mum Suzie says he's been enormously helpful and grown-up. Now he's been shortlisted for an award from the children's charity, Tommy's.

    You can hear James and Suzie talking to Mike Zeller at Breakfast on BBC Radio Cumbria here. (We should warn you, he's rather cute.)

  14. Your pictures: Oh, deer, look what's in the garden

    Jaqui Hodgson had some visitors to her garden in Grasmere. By the look of their ears, they were as surprised to see her, as she was to see them, but she was kind enough to allow us to share this picture with you.

    Deer in garden

    If you've got a picture you'd like to share, you can email ustweet us or get in touch through our Facebook page

  15. Sellafield workers to vote on strike over pensions

    About 16,000 workers in the nuclear industry, including up to 7,000 in Cumbria, are to be balloted by trade unions to see whether they're prepared to strike over a proposed pension reform.

    The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says it has to take part in a wider government policy to reform pensions that are currently based on a worker's final salary.

    View of Sellafield

    The authority has opened consultation today on either capping the pensionable element of future pay rises to 1%, to limit future expenditure, or basing pensions on an employee's average salary throughout their career instead.

    Trade union officials say there's no need to reform pensions because the fund is in a healthy condition, and the reform is purely about saving the government and NDA, £660m.

  16. Carlisle boss: Some players have to go

    BBC Radio Cumbria Sport

    Carlisle United's manager Keith Curle's told BBC Radio Cumbria Sport that some 'squad' players will have to be sacrificed to allow Carlisle United to sign more 'first team' players. 

    United's push for automatic promotion's wobbled slightly over the last week - with back-to-back defeats in League Two.

  17. Unions to ballot nuclear workers on pensions strike

    Thousands of nuclear workers at sites across the UK, including Sellafield, are to be balloted for strikes in a row over pensions.  

    More soon.

  18. A66 flood defence work 'in final stages'

    Work to raise the level of the A66 alongside Bassenthwaite to try to stop it being flooded in future is in its final stages according to Highways England.

    A66 work in progress

    Five sections of the road are being raised by up to 1.5m (5ft) because the storms of recent years, including Desmond last winter, have led to partial or complete closure of the key route to West Cumbria.

    Today the engineers said the work at Dubwath, which has led to long traffic delays at times, was largely completed.

    Work was continuing at Smithy Cottage, and the final phase would be raising the carriageway near the Osprey sites.

  19. Cumbria's weather: Rain clearing, showers later

    BBC Weather

    The last of the rain may clear this afternoon, but the showers will return later. Temperatures will rise to about 9C (48F).

    Weather graphic

    You can find the latest forecast for where you are, here.

  20. Date set for crown court hearing after Workington death

    A Workington man appeared at West Cumbria Magistrates this morning charged with murder and will next appear at Carlisle Crown Court.

    Calvin Patrickson, who is 22 and from Newlands Gardens, was remanded in custody this morning to appear before the higher court on Wednesday.

    He was arrested after the death of Daniel McMullen, 29, at a house in Beech Court on Saturday morning.