Lake walk needs repair

3:25pm Tuesday 20th May 2008

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THE walkway around Marine Lake in West Kirby - popular with locals and visitors all year round - is to be closed for months for urgent repairs.

Special material on the wall that protects the lake from the the sea has deteriorated over time and is now due to be replaced.

The work - due to begin in November for completion in spring of next year - is budgeted to cost a total of £750,000.

The money will come from Wirral Council's capital spending programme, but the repairs could also qualify for grant aid from the Environment Agency.

If agreed at a meeting of the ruling cabinet this Thursday, council officers will send a detailed submission to the Environment Agency to apply for aid.

The Marine Lake was opened in 1889 with the outer wall holding the water in the lake and providing a walkway for the public.

In his report to be considered by cabinet, the council's technical services director David Green writes: "Despite ongoing maintenance, by the early 1980s the outer wall had deteriorated to such an extent that investigations were undertaken to identify options for the future of the lake."

Reconstruction work was carried out during 1986 and 1987, he said, with the inner face of the outer wall constructed using "a specialised marine bituminous mixture".

Mr Green added: "This material had a design life expectancy of 20-25 years and is now showing signs of distress. The degradation is increasing such that it is now important that works are carried out as a matter of urgency."

He said that "rising sea levels, increasing stormy weather and the increasing age of the wall" all contributed to the rate of deterioration.

Mr Green proposes draining the lake, reconstructing the inner face of the outer sea wall, and making some steelwork repairs to the seaward side of the walkway.

The new cabinet is expected to approve the repairs when it meets for the first time on Thursday