A FORTY foot wall of water threatened to breach a moorland road and flood a railway line.

Emergency services including the Environment Agency spent hours pumping water from Black Clough, a stream on Deerplay Moor, near Cliviger to prevent it bursting through and sending a wall of water towards Holme Chapel. The problem was caused when heavy rains resulted in the water building up behind a country road and at times washing over it.

Bill Rushton, flood defence manager for the Environment Agency at Preston said: "At times there was a real health and safety issue.

"The moorland road goes across Black Clough and the banking is 40 feet high. A blocked culvert caused it to fill and at times to overspill. Had it breached the banking it would have swamped the area downstream."

Police checked that no-one in the area was at risk while the fire and rescue service and then the Environment Agency started pumping water away. They were there throughout the night managing to reduce the level by a metre.

Burnley Council yesterday took more pumps to the scene with more heavy rain forecast.

Mr Rushton said: "The railway is about three-quarters of a kilometre downstream and had it breached it would have smacked right into the embankment."

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