ALMOST half a million pounds is to be spent on transforming the area around Waterside Brook, Darwen.

United Utilities plans to carry out sewer improvements and renovation work to help clean up the brook and its banks with a £423,000 package of measures.

Some of the cash will go towards installing a new wastewater pumping station off Johnson Road, Waterside, across the stream from the existing station. Parts of the sewer network will be renovated and a new underground chamber will be fitted to trap sewage debris and update the current system.

The new measures will improve sewer performance and prevent pollution reaching Waterside Brook, especially at times of heavy rain when the sewers are full.

United Utilities plans to tunnel under the brook to attach the sewer network to the new pumping station, preventing any environmental disturbance of the brook or nearby grazing land and gardens.

Once the new pumping station is working, the old one will be demolished and both sites will be fully landscaped.

Project manager John Parr said: "We have been careful to ensure that we do not disturb the brook or our neighbours' land while we carry out this essential work and we will try to keep disruption to a minimum.

"This project will make an enormous difference to Waterside Brook and to the efficiency of the sewers in the area.

"The new pumping station will be able to cope far better, preventing pollution flowing into the brook, and sewage litter along the banks will be a very rare sight indeed."

The project will start next Monday and is expected to last six months. It is part of United Utilities' £3 billion water quality and environmental improvement programme - the largest of its type in the country.

East Rural Ward councillor Fred Slater said: "I'm not aware of any major problems with sewers down there but anything that will improve the water quality I fully support, especially with being a fly fisherman.

"We want the brooks to remain fresh and unpolluted and I'm sure this scheme will ensure that."