A ROAD and path closure has been put in place after revellers posed a "danger to the public" at a beauty spot.

Cumbria County Council has closed a 1.8km section of the U1241,Butterburn road that gives access Crammel Linn Falls.

It is also understood that the MOD have also closed off a permissive path on land near the RAF Spadeadam base to restrict access to the site.

The disruption to local residents has involved clogging the road with cars so emergency vehicles can't get passed, the widespread littering of the area and the flouting of social distancing rules.

Concerned Gilsland resident Malcolm Redman said that trouble has been a continuing problem since the start of the May bank holiday weekend when hundreds of people gathered near the beauty spot.

He said: "It was a party and a rave crowd descended on the area.

"Up there was an old RAF firing range with an aircraft in the middle of it and there was lots of people going to look, doing what they shouldn't have been doing.

"The restrictions are in place temporarily to give it time to recover.

He added there is an ongoing problem with litter in the area and was in agreement with the measures taken to stop people congregating.

On a recent litter picks he picked up things like discarded and tents sleeping bags together with other rubbish like beer cans.

Malcolm said: "It has to be emphasised that we do expect visitors and we are a community that depends on tourism for our livelihoods what we got was an influx who were not respecting our lockdown."

A spokesman for Cumbria County Council said they had responded to a request for an emergency road closure and access is retained for pedestrians, dismounted cyclists and for emergency vehicle access to busineses and properties.

He added: "This is to put off some of the volume of traffic that we were seeing and prevent people from flouting social distancing guidelines. "

The council put the road 21 day closure in place on July 7.

The notification stated: "Due to the likelihood of danger to the public, as a result of the indiscriminate parking and the potential for vehicular collisions, which is preventing emergency vehicle access and preventing people from observing the social distancing guidelines as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic."