A MAJOR Carlisle city centre street was left in disarray after a contractor who was relaying the pavement packed up and left.

Officials at Cumbria County Council said “unforeseen circumstances” lay behind the sudden ending of the work in Devonshire Street, where a new pavement on a 100-yard stretch was being upgraded.

Though some safety barriers were in place to protect pedestrians, large areas of the pavement were left without paving slabs for several days.

At least one woman pedestrian is thought to have been injured in a fall.

Council officials sent a team to the street on Friday to carry out urgent temporary repairs, filling the holes with tarmac.

A county council spokesman said: “Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond the control of Cumbria County Council, the footway works on Devonshire Street in Carlisle have had to be postponed.

“Temporary measures have been put in place to enable the footway to be re-opened to the public.

“At present, it is not known when the works will recommence but an update will be provided in due course.”

Since the paving company pulled-out and work ceased, the county council has been filling in large holes left by missing paving stones.

Dan White, from the Hell Below bar in Devonshire Street, welcomed the county council’s intervention.

He said people working on the street had welcomed the start of work to repair the pavement.

“The pavement was ruined - really uneven, so it needed doing,” he said.

“One day [Toman Paving Ltd workers] asked us to close early; that was the night they stopped working, on Thursday [September 12].

“The council has been very apologetic, but it’s not their fault. They are temporarily filling the holes in the pavement to make it safe because it was left in a very unsafe state.

“They’ve been very responsive. We heard that one old lady fell over. She was injured and taken off in an ambulance.”

Dan added that the work done so far - which began two weeks ago on Sunday - had been disruptive to businesses on the street, including his.

During the sunny weather, he had been unable to be put out chairs and tables because of the barriers so outside trade was lost.

The News & Star contacted Toman Paving Ltd but nobody was available for comment.