The new home for a historic weir will be a prime site on a main road close to Todmorden town centre, if planning permission is granted.
Mr Mark Tupman of the Environment Agency has applied to Calderdale Council for planning permission to relocate the 200-year-old structure, part of Todmorden’s industrial heritage, from its site at Back Waterloo, Rochdale Road, to Fielden Square.
The weir is having to be moved from its original spot as part of flood alleviation work and it is hoped to place it on land next to the car park opposite the Golden Lion in Fielden Square.
If the weir was left in place asdditional work costing £2 million would have to be carried out upstream, so it is still playing a role in the town’s developoment.
Consultees over the matter have included Todmorden Civic Society, Calderdale Council and the Environment Agency’s Todmorden Key Stakeholder Group.
The weir was once used to power the former Fielden’s Waterside Mill by regulating the flow from Walsden Water through mechanical sluice gate structures via a mill race. The mill race fed a water wheel on the site of what is now Morrisons supermarket.
Warning there will be a need to avoid utility cables during construction, agents Halcrow says the structure - and its immediate stone slab - is of local historic significance and its relocation will create an interesting feature, still close to its original location and highly visible on a key route into town.