River Wall Repairs

Back in August 2021 a small section of the retaining wall abutting the Colne Road bridge over Pendle Water collapsed, with subsidence cracks extending across a larger area of the wall. Further deterioration occurred and an inspection of the wall showed that the river had undermined the wall's footings for some distance downstream of the collapse. A temporary modern fix of netting anchored into the bank and wall was installed to prevent further collapse whilst a plan for repair could be drawn up and agreed by the Environment Agency.

This took four years before an innovative dry bag method of underpinning the wall enabling repairs was agreed with the Agency and a Licence to carry out the work was granted. When the temporary repair was removed the amount of wall needing rebuilding had doubled and an additional length needed underpinning. This additional work took the estimated cost from £40,000 to £70,000 + vat. The work has now been completed.

The Parish Council is grateful to the Barrowford and Western Parishes Area Committee who awarded a grant of nearly £4000 in 2022 and carried it over year by year until the work could be done.