WORK will begin later this year on another engineering project designed to rid the town of ageing cast iron and lead water pipes.

People living in the Great Sankey and Penketh areas are set to share in the benefits of a £7 million mains operation covering more than 30,000 homes.

Renewal efforts will see the metallic mains, often responsible for water discolouration, phased out in favour of plastic alternatives fed through existing pipework. And the end is near for thousands of lead pipes, linking mains and properties, which are also set to be replaced.

Outlining the programme, project manager John Byron said the scheme would include Fiddlers Ferry, parts of Penketh and Great Sankey and stretch as far as Bold Heath and Sutton.

Replacement mains are to be installed in properties to the north of the M62 from October, in a North West Water operation scheduled to last nine months. Further work, in the remaining areas, will begin in November and last for 12 months.

Mr Byron said: "Wherever possible techniques will be used to reduce the level of inconvenience and disruption to residents and road users. These days we try to avoid trenches, digging small access pits instead."

Plans to improve a wastewater treatment plant at Moore, at a cost of £3 million, and mains in Culcheth were announced earlier this year.

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