CRUCIAL investigation work is to get underway next month in a bid to resolve the Northwich salt mines crisis.

A £550,000 contract has been announced by Vale Royal Borough Council as a major step forward in dealing with subsidence dangers which have plagued the town for nearly 10 years.

Private companies have been drafted in to carry out the latest series of tests on the four abandoned salt mines at Witton Bank, Pennys Lane, Neumanns and Barons Quay.

Leader of the council, Clr Bob Mather, said: We need to have the latest facts and information at our fingertips to make the best judgements.

This important next stage is to complete the gaps in previous investigations and enable us to make the final decisions on the methods for stabilising the mines and the disposal of the brine.

The work, which is expected to take about nine months, will be carried out by WS Atkins, the UKs largest consulting engineers alongside German firm KBB, which has specific experience of salt related isssues.

The firm was awarded the contract as part of a £772,000 cash injection to the council from English Partnerships earlier this year, under the Governments Land Stabilisation Programme.

As part of the investigations the council is also planning to appoint a drilling contractor to start work at the end of September, when 11 boreholes around the town centre will be drilled to a depth of 88 metres over a period of eight weeks.

From that survey it is hoped they will find out the current state of the mines, how to extract the saturated brine the mines are filled with, how to fill them in and how to dispose of the brine afterwards.

'nce the investigation is completed council leaders are confident of securing the £28 million needed from the Government and other sources to start stabilising the mines, which will start in 2002 and will take four years to complete.