06/03/10 More information on incidents involving the police and fire service can be accessed via links on the contacts page.
06/03/10 In the early hours of this morning burglars once again targeted the shap co-op store ,  ,police and the fire service attended after the culprits smashed in the doors and for reasons best known to themselves then attempted to set fire to the cash machine. the fire service attended at 02.14 The fire was extinguished using two sets of breathing apparatus and one dry powder extinguisher. The appliance returned to station at 0346 hours .  The store is closed until further notice,  of all burglars caught for commiting crimes in the shap area almost all get a pathetic amount of community service as punishment so is it any wonder that the village is targeted again and again, only last week three men in court for a burglary at the corus quarry in the village were each given community service but no fines as  they had children to support! .Maybe if the local magistrates took a tougher stance it would act as a deterrent instead of shap being seen as a soft touch. The police must be getting sick of bothering to go to the trouble of catching the culprits (most of whom have previous records for similar offences) only to see magistrates let them off with a slap on the wrist .
17/02/10 Fire crews,ambulance  and police were called to a serious accident on the A6 south of shap this afternoon ,the accident near the pink quarry involved two vehicles which were in a head on collision,the extent of injuries to the occupants of the vehicles is not known at this time.
15/02/10 Thank you to all the people who are contacting the website with comments (some good ,some not so good) and suggestions .All your emails do get read but due to lack of time it is not always possible to reply, with regards to the people who have commented on spelin mitsakes and grammatical errors i apologise  and can only say it is mainly down to my typing skills (or lack of them !!)  because this website doesn't receive funding i can't afford to get it proof read before publishing and due to the lack of time  i have to update this site ,mistakes do happen and i will put them right when time allows. I have tried to concentrate on the content of the website getting interesting facts & figures/pictures  etc and will continue to try and find more ,i am sure the amount of material more than makes up for the mistakes and as someone commented it adds to the quirkiness !!.
27/01/10 Have you got anything you are thinking of throwing away that might be of use to someone else ? remember one mans rubbish is another mans treasure, check out freegle the new recycling craze sweeping eden district. Give stuff away or pick up stuff for nowt!! more details on   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PenrithEdenFreegle/   also see whats on page for upcoming freegle event.
25/01/10 Work begins today on the revamp of the zebra crossing in the centre of the village,the pavement will be widened and railngs installed in an attempt to make the crossing safer for pedestrians. Work will take up to 2 weeks and disruption can be expected with traffic signals in operation.
22/01/10 Bus passengers in shap have been inconvenienced for some time now because of inconsiderate drivers parking at bus stops thus preventing the buses from picking up passengers where they should with buses often having to go hundreds of yards down the road which is not ideal for all passengers but especially the more elderly among them. The response of cumbria county council to this problem is to deny it exsists because stagecoach (one of the bus companies on the route ) have not replied to them regarding this ,they also say they are not prepared to mark out bus bays on the road because this would mean cars having to park elsewhere !! Now i'm not a qualified highway engineer like the people who came up with this excuse but surely the point of having marked areas for buses is to make cars park elsewhere !! Another example of the lack of sense of the people who spend your council tax money. Anyone wishing to contact cumbria county council can do so using the links on the contacts page  (but don't expect an immediate response ,it has taken them 5 months to respond to this problem!!)
08/01/2010 . 1pm - Low temperature in last 24 hours of  a quite chilly  -15.8 

04/01/2010  .6pm -This mornings rant at cumbria county council seemed to have some effect as council workmen arrived in shap this afternoon and started throwing salt around. Maybe i'm being cynical but it didn't happen to have anything to do with a local news crew filming in shap did it ?? The salt bins are still mostly empty though .
The need for salt is underlined by last night and todays temperatures in the shap area  -it fell to -11.3c at 8am this morning and rising to a tropical - 3.4c by 2pm this afternoon !! details of latest weather can be found on  - http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/nw/shap_latest_weather.html      04/01/2010  Anyone using the pavements in shap this week should take great care as most of them remain unsalted,this is due to the total neglect of country areas by cumbria county council who only fill the salt bins in the village occasionally ,and when they do it's not salt but an inferior substitute which is used.
04/01/2010 The kings arms at shap was broken into yesterday (sunday) in the early hours,thieves broke in and ransacked the bar and gaming machines stealing drink ,money and chocolate. Anyone with any information should contact the police (see contacts page for details) , a list of last years crime stats for shap can be seen by viewing this link - http://maps.police.uk/view/?ll=54.5268597914023,-2.6780891418457075&z=12

 03/01/2010  Message on the cumbria police website - We are consulting with our Community, priorites will be set on 19 January 2010 at Shap Memorial Hall at 7.30 Please come along and have your say. 

A wintry start to the new year in shap