Repairs to begin on City Walls walkways

Cheshire West and Chester Council has started a £20,000 programme of repairs to the walkways on Chester’s City Walls this week.

Around three million people visit the famous landmark each year and repairs are carried out regularly to keep the walkways safe.

The repairs will be taking place all round the Walls circuit and narrow sections have been prioritised to be repaired while lockdown restrictions are in place to minimise disruption.  Most of the narrow sections will be repaired during the very early morning too.

The Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport, Councillor Karen Shore said: “Our Highways team regularly arrange for the paving on the City Walls walkways to be repaired to ensure this valuable asset remains in good condition.  Although the Walls aren’t getting as many visitors as usual, due to the current pandemic, we are making sure they will be in good shape for when visitors can return.

“The repairs will take around four weeks and we are prioritising narrow sections first while there are fewer people around to minimise inconvenience to the public.  The weather and temperature conditions are perfect for this work at the moment because the lime mortar being used is very sensitive to extremes of temperature and weather conditions.”

The use of the specialist lime mortar has been agreed by Historic England.  The work will be carried out by a family team of stonemasons, beginning near the steps in Frodsham Street car park and then moving north, towards King Charles' Tower.  The Council’s Highways contractor, Ringway, is also currently repairing paving in the city centre.