EMERGENCY sewer repairs and culvert strengthening work is being carried out in Ilkley to prevent sewerage discharging into the River Wharfe.

A section of Bridge Lane has been closed for the major works to repair the culvert which was damaged by the Boxing Day floods.

It was originally scheduled to take place later in the year when the road would be quieter, but the work has had to be brought forward due to a fracture in the sewer which runs under the culvert.

The work is expected to take about five weeks to complete. There is a signed diversion route in place and access to properties will be maintained.

A Bradford Council spokesman said: “We are working with Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency to carry out these repairs.

“We had scheduled the work to take place later in the year when the road would not be as busy with people wanting to use the park, but unfortunately this has had to be brought forward.

“We would like to apologise in advance for the inconvenience caused by this essential work.”

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said: “The collapsed culvert has damaged our sewer and is resulting in the beck being diverted into our network.

“We’re working in partnership with Bradford Council and the Environment Agency to get these works finished as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary disruption.”

Mark West, The Environment Agency’s environment management team leader, said extensive investigations had to be carried out to identify the cause of discharge of storm sewage into the River Wharfe from Ilkley sewage treatment works.

“Working in partnership with Yorkshire Water we discovered that a hole in the road at Bridge Lane was caused by a collapsed culvert, which is likely to have occurred during the recent winter floods.

“The collapse of the culvert carrying the beck, which runs behind houses in Middleton Road and Lister Street, caused the blocking of the water course.

“The pressure of the build-up of water in the culvert led to water infiltrating a sewage pipe below. This, combined with extra input from the street storm drains, hugely increased the flow of water into the sewage works. As is often the case in periods of heavy rainfall, there was some overflow into the river.

“We would like to complement Yorkshire Water. It wasn’t an easy task to find where the pipe had been infiltrated.