FLOOD defence work costing £250,000 is to be launched in Pendle when works starts at the beginning of April.

The Community Flood Resilience project will see £215,000 being spent in Earby over the next nine months.

It will involve raising the parapet wall on Boot Street, providing deployable flood barriers for Water Street, ‘waterproof’ the beck wall at Victoria Mill and improve flood defence infrastructure in the Lane Ends area.

Already work costing £15,000 has started to reduce flood risk at Selbourne Terrace, Red Lion Street and Cemetery Road by building walls to protect properties together with some drainage work.

Councillor David Whipp said: "I’m really pleased this work is going ahead - it will make a major difference to flood risk in the town.

“Getting this money is a major victory. We’ve been working hard at Pendle Council to secure the funding, which will need to be invested during the rest of 2017.

“Through Pendle Council we’re also bidding for £600,000 of European money, but this is less certain to happen. I think we’ve a better than even chance of getting the funds.

“If successful the money will be put towards a major flood alleviation scheme which the Environment Agency is drawing up."

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “The final business case for the Victoria Clough culvert refurbishment is going through our internal approval process now. This should take four to six weeks.

“If we are given the go-ahead we hope to start work as soon as possible. We already have an approved contractor, who are currently doing site and ground investigation works so that we can facilitate the future work more quickly.”

The Environment Agency is also a couple of months into an £100,000 project to identify options to reduce flood risk in Earby.

The study will also update the EA’s flood map for Earby, improve the flood alert/warning area and improve planning decisions.

A public event to share the emerging options is due to take place in June when the team’s initial findings would be circulated.

Cllr Whipp added: “Pendle Council is also working with Earby Town Council on a £10,000 scheme for an emergency pump for the town.

"And Pendle Council is investigating drains, sewers and culverts in the Skipton Road and Lane Ends areas and has revealed several issues that need sorting out with both Yorkshire Water and Lancashire County Council," he said.

Yorkshire Water continued to investigate an old culvert on Water Street and hoped to put a bid together for work if they could get a repair/replacement project to stack up against their criteria, he added.