BISPHAM'S revamped sea defences have been officially completed and the event was marked with a special civic ceremony.

Blackpool Mayor Coun Sue Wright opened the defences, on Wednesday, marking the completion of a £2.4 million project to strengthen existing sea walls between Cavendish Road and Red Bank Road, Bispham.

The project faced an uncertain future last November when original contractors Christiani and Neilsen went into administration forcing them to stop trading and leaving the work half finished.

Blackpool Borough Council put the work out to tender again and in early March work resumed when Harbour & General works took over the project.

The scheme was originally expected to be completed by Easter, but was rescheduled for an August finish.

The Bispham works formed part of a 20-year project to renew the North Shore sea wall from Cocker Square to Anchorsholme Park. A council spokesman said work on the final stage of the whole project is expected to begin in November at St Stephens Avenue, North Shore.

Acting council leader Roy Fisher said the need for the Red Bank Road works became clear when a severe storm on Christmas Eve, 1999, caused a large hole to appear under the sea wall.

He said: "The wall was literally falling apart. It took 120 tons of concrete to fill the void and this was the third time something like that had happened to this stretch of the wall since 1992. The existing sea walls have taken a severe battering since they were originally built in 1919 but they have now been reconstructed, strengthened and this section of the coastline is now protected."

Jim McNeilly, North West area manager of Harbour & General said: "We were delighted with how both our project team and the council's project team worked very closely together to overcome the break in programme and then went on to achieve what is an attractive and robust section of sea defences."

The Red Bank Road section has been jointly funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Blackpool Borough Council.