BBC Local Live: Cumbria

It'll be dry with sunny spells this evening and it should stay dry for most of the night with clear skies at first. 

Cloud will increase from the west later, bringing a few showers by dawn, with a low of 5C (41F).

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

Fewer patients were admitted as emergencies or spent time in hospital beds in South Cumbria thanks to new systems, according to health trust officials.

The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust came under severe strain through the winter, repeatedly asking for extra staff to come in if possible.

But chief executive Jackie Daniel said work in the community has led to a drop in the number of people having "unscheduled" visits to hospitals since then.

Workington make the trip to Ashton United this evening lying six points off the Evo-Stik Premier play-off places. 

The Reds are still waiting to hear if their postponed game against financially-stricken Ilkeston from Saturday will be re-arranged after the Ilkeston players refused to travel to West Cumbria.

The government's finally set the date of 30 June for the closure of Kendal Magistrates' Court.

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Moves to close the court began in July 2015  - and were met with a furious reaction from police and the legal profession.

Defendants and witnesses will now have to travel to Barrow or Lancaster. For some people in the area, it is impossible to get to either and return by public transport on the same day.

The Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron said the court house also dealt with family issues: "They will not be able to get the support and the justice in the community in which they live. It will be a huge blow."

TV drama The A Word has started filming a new series in Manchester and the Lake District.

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The BBC drama series first aired last year, showing the problems faced by families with an autistic child.

The new series, once more starring Max Vento, Christopher Eccleston, Mollie Wright, Morven Christie and Lee Ingleby, takes up the story two years later.

Tens of thousands of coin collectors have been logging on to the Royal Mint website today to buy the first issue of special 50p pieces showing colour pictures of Peter Rabbit and other characters from Beatrix Potter stories.

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The silver proof coins follow a series issued last year to mark Potter's 150th birthday, which have proved among the most popular collectors' coins the mint has ever produced.

Ordinary coins to the same design will come into circulation later this year.

The Prince of Wales is to spend two days in Cumbria next week.

On Monday, he will visit a variety of places in West Cumbria including Ennerdale, the Rosehill Theatre in Whitehaven, a charity for young people in housing need and the New Balance factory in Flimby, which is 35 years old.

The following day he'll visit Appleby to see how the town is recovering from the floods of 2015, and an artisan cheese-making plant at Appleby Creamery.

Prince Charles visited Carlisle in December 2015 to see first-hand the damage caused by Storm Desmond.

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The Japanese conglomerate Toshiba has taken 100% control of Nugen, the company developing plans for a new nuclear power station at Moorside, near Sellafield, and today the firm was stressing its determination to "drive forward" the project.

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Toshiba's financial problems and, yesterday, the announcement by the French partner ENGIE that it was pulling out of the project have meant months of doubt about the huge scheme .

Today Nugen announced Toshiba had bought out the French firm and said the company was "working tirelessly to bring-in additional investment to support the Moorside project as it works towards helping to deliver a low-carbon future for the UK."

A walker in his eighties suffered a head injury when he fell on the path down Dungeon Ghyll in Great Langdale.

He was treated at the scene by volunteers from the Langdale Ambleside rescue team and flown to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary by the Great North Air Ambulance after the accident yesterday.

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Cumbria's fire service has opened a recruiting campaign, hoping to bring in more than 50 new firefighters on a retained basis.

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They're needed at 27 stations across the county, from Alston in the north east to Bootle in the west.

Retained firefighters are on call  and are paid a retainer of up to £2,964 and an hourly rate when they are called out.

A series of taster sessions are being held over the next month, with stations holding open days.

South Lakeland District Council says the final count showed 1,247 people applied for £5,000 flood resilience grants when the scheme closed at the end of last week.

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Council officials say this means about two thirds of those who were eligible asked for a grant.

The authority has now approved more than £2.4m worth of work such as flood gates, concrete floors or raised kitchen units and electrical circuits.

The money can also be used to pay for additional measures to protect a house against flooding, which wouldn't be covered by household insurance.

It'll be a fine and dry afternoon with sunny spells and patchy cloud. It will feel cooler than yesterday with gentle northwest winds and a maximum temperature of 13C (55F). 

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

Visitors have been asked to stay away from a ward at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven after an outbreak of the so-called winter vomiting disease, norovirus.

Officials say there would be exceptions for patients nearing the end of their life, or where staff on the ward, 4B, felt visiting was essential.

A man rescued from Harrington dock yesterday evening has died in hospital. 

He'd been seen entering the water and members of the public called the emergency services. 

Coastguard teams from Maryport and Whitehaven, and the Workington lifeboat, all turned out.

The man, who's said to be in his 40s, was rescued by a police officer and given CPR on the dockside. He was flown to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary by air ambulance in a critical condition. 

Police say there are no suspicious circumstances, but they've appealed for witnesses.

The Mayor of Copeland, Mike Starkie, says a new relief road could bring a range of benefits to Whitehaven.

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Cumbria County Council's ordered a £60,000 study to assess the need for a route and a corridor of land was identified in a major planning document .

The town's harbour commissioners say congestion caused by traffic passing on its way to and from Sellafield deters people from going into the town, but some traders say there'd be even less passing trade if there was a bypass.

But Mr Starkie says there'd be many other benefits: "There's potential for a huge return for that investment because a relief road on the proposed route would open up a lot of land that could be used for housing or industrial development."

Cumbria's tweeting sheep farmer, James Rebanks, has gathered 94,000 followers worldwide describing on the social network how he cares for his flock with the help of his dogs. 

People in Cumbria could find more decisions being taken by very local councils, but they'll be asked to pay more in council tax.

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District councils, which are losing their government financial support, are passing over responsibility for services like public toilets, or the care of local features like the Musgrave Monument in Penrith (pictured), to the more local town or parish council.

The councillors are often keen to have more control, but Rick Petetski, who's chairman of the Cumbria Association of Local Councils , says they'll need more money to pay for the extra workload.

He says some funds are passed on by the larger district councils, and there's the option to raise council tax: "A lot of parish council don't have they capacity, they are volunteers, they have part time clerks."

Sheep farmers and butchers fear they could lose legal protection for traditional Cumbrian foods because it depends on European legislation.

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Traditional Cumberland sausage and Lakeland Herdwick lamb both have what's called Protected Geographical Indication , which means they have to be produced in particular ways within a particular area.

Designation of the sausage recipe followed a long campaign because big industrial food producers didn't want their business restricted by the regulations.

Once Britain's no longer under the authority of the European courts , the protection may not be unenforceable, and local business people like farmer Peter Gott say a way must be found to retain it.

Quote Message: We certainly wanted to protect our Cumberland sausage so it wasn't going to be made in Croydon or Lithuania, very important, because it's our regional product." from Peter Gott Farmer and food producer

We certainly wanted to protect our Cumberland sausage so it wasn't going to be made in Croydon or Lithuania, very important, because it's our regional product."

Pictures taken in the Lake District by Beatrix Potter's father Rupert have been sold for £1,000 to a Canadian collector.

1818 AuctioneersCopyright: 1818 Auctioneers

The 41 photographs taken between 1909 and 1913 are thought to include several of Beatrix. Others are scenes that are still recognisable today.

They went under the hammer at 1818 Auctioneers, in Crooklands, yesterday.