A CAR park on the Saddleworth border is set to close for up to six months for use as a contractors’ base.
Canals & River Trust (C&RT) is undertaking repair work at remote Swellands and Black Moss Reservoirs in three phases over the next three years.
In order to facilitate maintenance vehicles, the car park at Brun Clough reservoir off the A62 in Diggle – previously highlighted by ward councillors for its poor state of repair – will be taken over.
Phase one works were scheduled to start on June 6 but hadn’t done so with vehicles still parking at the site, popular as a base for walkers exploring moorland in Saddleworth and Marsden.
The Independent understands phase one works will not run beyond December 15, 2022.
Following completion, the C&RT’s contractor will carry out levelling and re-stoning of the surface of the car park.
It will then be re-opened for use to the public until the phase 2 works start next year. Phases 2 and 3 are scheduled to run for the majority of 2023 and 2024 with the C&RT paying the council a licence fee for each year of use.
To mitigate the effects on the public, C&RT has looked at a piece of Kirklees Council owned to see if it could provide temporary car parking.
In addition, C&RT is looking to carry out a small-scale tree planting scheme on land owned by an adjoining farmer to ‘compensate for the visual impact of the track that will need creating from the A62 to the reservoirs’
It has also been agreed they will undertake a similar scheme on council land adjacent to the car park.
• The Independent approached Oldham Council for a comment but had not received a reply by the time of going to print.
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