A CUMBRIAN council has taken the decision to temporarily close its multi-storey car park from today, in order to "free up" staff to help support its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Allerdale Council announced yesterday that from today at 6pm, the Central Way multi-storey car park will be closed, on a temporary basis.

A spokesman for Allerdale Council explained the reasoning behind the decision.

"This decision has been made in order to free up extra staff resource to support the ongoing response to the Covid-19 pandemic," the spokesman explained.

A further reason is that "people have been sticking to the lockdown rules by staying at home, usage of the site has been very low in the last week.

"We'd like to thank all those who are following the national 'stay at home' message and look forward to welcoming customers back when the time is right.

"Permit holders will be contacted by our parking team and those who need to travel into Workington town centre for essential reasons can still use our other car parks."