BBC Local Live: Cumbria

It will remain mostly dry with variable cloud and clear spells this evening and overnight. Moderate southwesterly winds and a minimum temperature of 5C (41F).

Another dry and fine day for most tomorrow with sunny spells. Blustery westerly winds will ease with a maximum temperature of 12C (54F).

See the details for your area here.

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There are renewed hopes that, within three years, all of Cumbria will have access to high speed broadband.

The government says that by 2020, a connection of at least 10mbps will be available to all areas of the county.

Gary Macrae, who owns the Hazel Bank Country House in Borrowdale, says: "It's important that people who come here can use the kit they bring with them. We're aiming to be a World Heritage Site but we don't want that to include third world technology."

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A sculpture is going to be made to pay tribute to the women known as the 'Cracker Packers' who worked at Carlisle's biscuit factory.

It will be put up in Caldewgate and will feature two women, one from the past and one from the present day.

The award-winning artist, Hazel Reeves, is working on the design.

She said: "It's got to have a sense of humour. They'll be standing on a huge bronze Carr's water biscuit so that will help. But we want to exude the warmth and camaraderie that they share."

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Health chiefs say the changes to healthcare services will not be immediate and they will not happen before solid plans are put in place.

The changes include most acute surgery, children's services and stroke support being downgraded at Whitehaven in West Cumbria and centralised in Carlisle.

An expected end to consultant-led maternity services in Whitehaven has been shelved for 12 months pending a review of staff recruitment.

The decisions were made by NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group. Its medical director Dr David Rogers said: “Firstly we would like to reassure our community, patients and staff that no services will change overnight. 

"Robust plans will need to be in place before any changes occur. We will need the community’s support to enable us to ensure the transition of these services safely over time."

A midwife says she is worried there will still be uncertainty despite a decision to retain consultant-led maternity services in Whitehaven for a 12-month trial instead of ending it.

There had been fears that there would be an end to the consultant-led service at West Cumberland Hospital but it has been decided to retain it for a year.

Midwife Bernadette Bowness said: "Why are people going to move here and uproot their families and come to a job where there are no certainties?

"People need to come to an area and a hospital where there are permanent jobs and where we are not constantly under review.

"We need that stability to make our hospital workable."

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Health chiefs say they have listened to feedback about changes to healthcare in Cumbria and appealed for the community's support as changes are made.

NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group has decided on a range of changes affecting maternity, stroke, emergency and children's care as well as about community hositals.

CCG’s chief executive Stephen Childs said: “We have listened to the feedback we received during the public consultation. 

"We have been very clear about the challenges we face and members of the public have shared their concerns about the risks. 

"We hope we have found a way forward, but we will need the support of everyone – NHS staff, the community, the groups we have been engaging with throughout the process as well as other health professionals, to try to ensure safe and sustainable services into the future."

West Cumbria will keep consultant-led maternity care for at least another 12 months, after health bosses decided to postpone one of the Cumbria Success Regime's recommendations.

The CCG, which funds much of the county's healthcare services, is giving the unit at the West Cumberland Hospital the time to prove that it's viable.

Mike Starkie, the mayor of Copeland says the decision has given the area a 'window of opportunity' to keep consultant-led care in the long term.

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Campaigners who were fighting to stop beds being lost in some of the county's community hospitals say they're very disappointed by a decision to close beds at three of them.

The Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group made the decision at a meeting in Workington today, as part of a review of local hospital services.

The beds will go at Alston, Wigton and Maryport hospitals.

Billl Barnes is from the 'Save Our Beds' campaign for Maryport Hospital. 

Speaking outside today's meeting he said: "I can't say I'm surprised. What I'm very disappointed by is there was no mention in that meeting of the part the community hospital plays in the whole situation. Every one of those beds in Maryport relieves an acute bed."

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A mostly dry and bright afternoon with sunny spells. Gusty westerly winds easing and a maximum temperature of 11C (52F).

It will remain mostly dry with variable cloud and clear spells this evening and overnight. Moderate southwest winds and a minimum temperature of 5C (41F).

See the details for your area here.

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After months of consultation and campaigning, health bosses have decided on the future shape of hospital services in North, West and East Cumbria.

Members of of the Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group met in Workington today to vote on proposals put forward by the Success Regime.

These are the headlines:  

• A consultant-led maternity unit will be retained in Whitehaven for a 12 month trial period
• Most children's care will be based in Carlisle

• In-patient beds at the community hospitals in Alston, Wigton and Maryport will close
• 24/7 services to be retained at Whitehaven and Carlisle hospitals. Carlisle will have more intensive care beds and deal with more complex cases
• Stroke treatment will be managed at Carlisle unit at first .

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All the decisions will need to be discussed by the County Council's Health Scrutiny Committee later this month before they can be implemented.  

The Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, made up of local GPs, has now approved the recommendations on emergency and stroke care.

The Success Regime, which was asked to look at the future of local hospital services, recommended that 24/7 services be retained at hospitals in Whitehaven and Carlisle, but that Carlisle would have slightly more intensive care beds and deal with more complex cases.

They also proposed that patients suffering strokes would all be managed in a unit in Carlisle at first, although they could be transferred back to an acute unit in Whitehaven if they required more treatment.

All the decisions made today will need to be discussed by the County Council's Health Scrutiny Committee later this month before they can be implemented.

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More than 200 Women's Institute members from across south Cumbria will gather in Ulverston today to mark International Women's Day.

Speakers will cover topics ranging from education in Rwanda to nursing in Nepal. There'll also be a Thai cookery demonstration and a competition to put on an Indian sari.

Ruth Rigg, who chairs the Cumbria-Westmorland Federation of WIs says: "We do embrace women all over the world and the challenges they face."

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Health bosses have voted to close inpatient beds at the hospitals in Alston, Wigton and Maryport.

This follows a recommendation from the Success Regime which was set up to look at the future of hospital services.

Members of the Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group have approved the plans at a meeting in Workington today.

Campaigners in all three towns had campaigned vigorously to keep the beds (Mayport protest pictured below).

Our political reporter Bob Cooper says the NHS says it will continue to work with those communities to develop other care options.

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A former Cumbrian police officer has been told he could be sent to prison, after admitting more child sex offences.

Nick Pool, who is 29 and lives near Penrith, appeared at Carlisle Crown Court in January, when he admitted three offences.

Today he sobbed as he pleaded guilty to another 11 offences. They included attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity and making and possessing indecent photographs of children.

He was remanded in custody and is expected to be sentenced at the end of next month.

Members of Cumbria's Clinical Commissioning Group have approved recommendations to base the main inpatients' unit for children at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

A short-stay ward for observation, and some overnight beds for youngsters with less acute illnesses will remain at at the West Cumberland in Whitehaven.

Our political reporter Bob Cooper says that it's been suggested at today's meeting of the CCG in Workington that there could be no children's beds there at all in the future.

Members of the Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group have voted to keep the consultant-led maternity service at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven.

But this will be for a 12-month trial.

Concerns were raised at the meeting in Workington today that recruitment problems in the NHS in Cumbria would make the plan unworkable. 

There has been strong opposition to any downgrading of the unit to a midwife-led service. 

Concern is being raised that 12 months isn't long enough to solve the recruitment issues which would make the proposed retention of a consultant-led unit at the West Cumberland Hospital workable.

Some at a meeting in Workington today are keen to avoid paying 'lip service' to maintaining the service only for it to be downgraded to a midwife-led unit in the end anyway.

Cumbria's Clinical Commissioning Group is discussing plans for the future of hospital care in North, West and East Cumbria.

Campaigners are keen for services not to be moved from Whitehaven to Carlisle.

More than 5,000 people responded to a consultation document about the changes the Success regime suggested for hospitals across North, West and East Cumbria . More than one third said they did not support any of the proposals, while others did not comment.

Many of the proposals suggest centralising consultant-led services in Carlisle, because of the difficulty of recruiting medical and other staff to Whitehaven. You can see the report on the response here .

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This map explains one of the largest issues - that mothers having difficult deliveries, parents with children suffering any acute illness, patients suffering a stroke or their relatives wanting to visit, would all be directed to Carlisle, a difficult journey on a poor road.

Of those who expressed an opinion on maternity services in Whitehaven, where the preferred option is a midwife-led unit dealing only with straightforward deliveries, 85% wanted the existing consultant-led department left as it was.

Another controversial area is a proposal to take inpatient beds out of cottage hospitals in Maryport, Alston and Wigton.

In Maryport, doctors and local people have come forward with their own set of proposals .