Work on village sewer project faces further delay

Plans to upgrade the village centre sewer network at Moseley's Yard have been put on hold yet again. United Utilities say they can still give no start date to the work on re-routing the existing sewer in Kingbur Place (Moseley's Yard Housing Development) into Shropshire Street.

Major sewer works were to have begun this summer but were put back over fears that village summer festivals could be disrupted. It was hoped that work might begin after this weekend's Transport Festival.

But United Utilies said today they still can't give a start date for the project. A letter to local residents says: "We informed you back in June of our intention not to start work that would coincide with the town's local festivals. This is still the case; however we are currently unable to provide you with an actual start date for the work to go ahead."

The company blames the delay on "operational difficulties" with civil engineers Morgan Est who are to carry out the work. The main stumbling block has been finding a suitable place to install sewage pumping equipment at the rear of Audlem Fire Station.

United Utilities' Christian Ewen said today: "We are currently in discussions with Cheshire Fire Service regarding land purchase and access rights to build a control kiosk. Once these terms have been agreed we will be able to proceed with the project, which we expect to be later this year."

"We have also been in discussions with the fire service to come up with a solution which will mitigate the effects our project will have on the emergency service provider. We believe that the fire service has now completed all their risk analysis of the situation and a plan will be drawn up in the coming weeks, which we will need to agree to and incorporate into our work schedule."

Connecting homes in the Moseley's Yard development to the main sewer is expected to take four months and will include partial closure of Shropshire Street for about two weeks.

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