Council confirms start date for wall collapse repairs at St Oswald’s in Malpas

Cheshire West and Chester Council is now able to confirm the start date for the St Oswald’s Church wall repairs on Church Street, Malpas will be Monday 15 August.

Following the collapse of the church wall the Council arranged for the temporary repair of the wall to make it safe.  Since then work has been undertaken to allow a permanent repair of the wall to take place.

The Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport, Councillor Karen Shore said: “I am pleased to be able to confirm that the preparatory work is now complete, the design of the repair has been finalised, all approvals have been secured, and work to permanently repair the wall is due to start Monday, 15 August.”

The contractors carrying out the repairs have permission to work Monday to Saturday starting at 8am at the earliest and finishing no later than 5pm.

The wall repair works will not require any road closures initially. However, it will become necessary later as the work progresses, to protect the public and the workforce, for a closure to be put in place on Church Street.

This closure will be carried out under a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order. Details will be published in the Chester Standard and on the Public Notices page of the Council’s website a fortnight before the closure is implemented. In addition, road signs will be placed on site at least one week in advance.

The works are expected to be finished by autumn 2022. This is subject to there being no unexpected disruptions to the work.

The Council will be taking the opportunity in early August (shortly before the works on the wall) to carry out improvements to make some roads in the area safer for the travelling public. This will require the closure of Mastiff Lane for an anticipated two-day period.

Although these local roads do not form part of the official diversion route, the Council’s Highways team is aware they will be used by more traffic when the Church Street closure is in place.

Councillor Shore added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank residents and businesses for their patience and support.  The repair of the wall is a complex engineering project due to the sensitivity and historic significance of the site. When combined with the age of the wall this has meant it has not been a straightforward repair.  We will continue to do all we can to ensure these works are carried out as quickly as possible.”

Specialist expertise was needed to develop the design for the repair. Tasks included engineers reviewing and interpreting ground penetrating radar site surveys results, undertaking load-bearing calculations and creating the technical designs to ensure the permanent stability of the wall.

The repair design required consultation with a range of stakeholders because of the listed status of the structure. Legal approvals (planning permission and permission from the Church of England Diocesan Advisory Committee) were also required to allow the works to be undertaken.