Slightly biased here as my family comes from Carlisle, my sister and my brothers sons families live in Cockermouth, my other sister and brother and their families live in Carlisle.
You ask about using the military to do this, well why not, remember the tanker strikes, the floods in Wells Next to the Sea, the fireman so strikes, need I go on, the military were used in all of those, they are after all a large reserve of army manpower available to the Government who when not fighting a war are really just in training mode.