A RETAINING wall at Burnley's £28million health and leisure centre collapsed after heavy rain caused a landslide.

Councillors have called for an urgent risk assessment of the St Peter's Centre, which opened in summer 2006, to protect members of the public from potential danger.

The 30ft stretch of wall at the Church Street entrance to the main car park, separating it from the River Brun, fell at around 9pm last night, covering the road and river in rubble and dirt.

Engineers spent today trying to find the exact cause of the collapse and making the area safe.

The entrance was re-opened just after 3pm, but until then stewards had to direct visitors to the alternative access behind the centre off Bank Parade, and spaces near the collapsed wall were cordoned off.

The centre, which holds GPs' surgeries as well as swimming pools, gym facilities, a squash court and a creche, remained open throughout the day.

Burnley Council's Labour group leader Andrew Tatchell said: "Thank goodness no members of the public were there at the time, but I will be pressing the council's executive to make sure the public are safeguarded.

"A full risk assessment needs to be done as a matter of urgency, throughout the entire site, to ensure nothing else can go wrong."

But bosses of the council and East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, who jointly own and run the centre, said nothing could be done until structural engineers returned their report.

It is not known how much it will cost to repair the damage but the bill will be paid by either St Peter's insurance or the centre's builders, Eric Wright Construction.

Council leader Gordon Birtwistle (Liberal Democrat) said the rain on Monday night was worse than anything he had ever seen in Burnley.

He said: "The wall was built to withstand normal conditions, but conditions yesterday were completely abnormal.

"We have been hit by a totally out-of-the-ordinary deluge which maybe the wall was not designed to withstand.

"Once we have investigated what has caused this, we need to make sure it won't happen again."

A spokesman for Burnley Council confirmed that full assessments had been made of the area before building began, and all advice on managing risks from the river had been followed.

An East Lancashire PCT spokesman said that although part of the exterior riverside wall had collapsed, this had not affected the underground steel piling put in behind the wall at the edge of the car park.

Peter Guy, managing director of Eric Wright Construction, added: "On receiving a report of the incident we acted quickly to secure the site and we are confident that there is no potential for further collapse or danger to the public.

"Our health and safety team has also remained in contact with the Environment Agency to keep them fully informed of the situation.

"As with every one of our construction projects, St Peter's Centre was built to the highest standards and all of the necessary engineering inspections were carried out prior to completion of the building."

Zilpha Lang, the manager of the leisure centre, said: "It's not clear yet what caused this collapse.

"The river was very high due to the recent heavy rainfall and it was also flowing very quickly."