THOUSANDS of customers across St Helens are being invited by United Utilities to attend local drop-in sessions over plans to modernise a historic aqueduct that goes through their area.

United Utilities find will share information to residents over how their area may be affected by a five-year investment programme for the pipes that bringing drinking water from Wales to the region.

Open events

The company is hosting a series of open events about the Vyrnwy Aqueduct Modernisation Programme, which will re-line two of the three parallel pipes that transport water from Lake Vyrnwy to customers across Cheshire, Merseyside, and the wider region.

At the sessions, staff from the water company can answer any questions and explain more about the project.

The three events for conversations take place at:-

• St James with St Matthews Church, St Helens Road, Prescot L34 2QB on Thursday 27 June between 2.30pm and 6.30pm.

• Rainhill Village Hall, Dane Court, Rainhill L35 4LU on Tuesday 2 July between 2.30pm and 6.15pm

• Everglades Hotel, Washington Suite, Derby Road, Widnes, WA8 3UJ on Thursday 4 July between 3pm and 6.30pm.

A virtual ‘village hall’ replicating these events online has also been created as a dedicated interactive website: https://uuhub.co.uk/Vrynwy.

It is live now and United Utilities say it will be helpful for those unable to attend in person and used to keep people updated once the work begins to show progress and activities.

'Complex work'

Will Eyre, regional delivery manager from United Utilities, said: ‘Since 1892, the Vyrnwy Aqueduct, which runs from Lake Vyrnwy through to Merseyside, has helped deliver clean wholesome drinking water to customers and communities across Cheshire, Merseyside and the North West region.

"However, the pipeline now requires work to ensure the quality of drinking water and to reduce the number of water discolouration events currently experienced by some of our customers that are supplied by the Vyrnwy Aqueduct.

"Over the last 100 years whole communities have been built around these important aqueducts so the work we are undertaking is complex and we would welcome customers to pop along and find out more’."

People can drop in at any time to speak to staff from United Utilities, and there will be printed information available to take away.

Information on all phases of the work is also available online at: https://uuhub.co.uk/vyrnwy/