CUMBRIA Local Enterprise Partnership says it 'works very closely' with Transport for the North, just days after an annual conference with no Cumbrian speakers.

Dr Steve Curl, a director at the organisation, who also sits on the board at Transport for the North and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, said: "We are all represented at T4N."

The conference was held on Monday, September 20 in Leeds and was primarily focussed on news around the delivery of HS2 and other major infrastructure projects, largely in major cities.

Dr Curl said: "Transport for the North engages very productively with myself and Keith," referring to Councillor Keith Little, Cabinet member for Highways and Transport at Cumbria County Council, who was present at the event.

"The organisation helps in terms of a strategic transport plan. We get a lot of support from them in order to get money from the national Department for Transport.

"We are all represented and we all have equal rights in terms of speaking – Cumbria certainly makes itself heard."

He conceded that in public, the metro mayors from combined authorities such as Manchester and Liverpool sometimes have a louder voice. He stressed, however, that everyone on the board at T4N has an equal say.

"We don't have the voice of someone like an Andy Burnham in the public arena but we can speak behind closed doors just as well as he can."

The upgrade to the A590 in the form of the roundabout at Cross-a-More is a product of T4N help.

The Cumbria Transport Infrastructure Plan, which has been developed by the County Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership, is currently in public consultation until October 2021.