ONE of the region’s biggest ever sewer projects is set to start on Monday.

United Utilities is carrying out part of a £35million water quality and drainage improvement scheme in Blackburn which it claims will leave a ‘positive legacy’ for the next 20 years.

A section of the A679 Audley Range at its junction with Queens Park Road will be closed with diversions along Chester Street, Strathclyde Road, William Hopwood Street and Lambeth Street.

A section of Queens Park Road from its junction with Ripon Street up towards Audley Range will also be closed, and Dickens Street will be closed off and dug up between July and September, with 800m of concrete pipes and a new storage tanks lowered into place.

The utilities company have acknowledged the impact on residents, businesses and motorists - and have offered to pay for community improvements and loss of trade. Businesses will have to provide up to three years of their books showing evidence of their loss to make a claim.

Currently, the borough’s sewers are at full capacity, so with every downpour, the system overflows, sending polluted water straight into rivers instead of via the treatment works.

It means the region’s water is failing new Environment Agency standards and taxpayers money is being pumped in to improve the old Victorian brick sewer network.

This means that a row of 12 houses in Queens Park Road which are regularly swamped with sewage, will be taken off the ‘at risk’ flood register.

Carly Atherton, project manager, said: “This scheme is going to improve the water quality of both rivers flowing through the town and at the same time upgrade important wastewater infrastructure in Blackburn town centre.

“I appreciate a scheme of this size is going to be disruptive on the local community and drivers. We have been working, and will continue to work with, local businesses, Blackburn with Darwen Council and community groups to ensure any noise or disruption is kept to a minimum.”

Residents in the Dickens Street area have started a petition against the works.

United Utilities said it was putting money into turning a grotspot in the area into a children’s facility.

The company said that the poor roads in the three areas would also be resurfaced and that building improvement work at local mosques had begun.

The large underground chambers are 4m deep by 3.4m wide. Once finished, Blackburn’s network will have 11,000 cubic metre of additional storage and screens to prevent debris entering the Rivers Blakewater and Darwen during storms.

Steve Molyneux, environment manager at the Environment Agency, said: “We have seen vast improvements in water quality over the past 20 years, but we need to do even more to meet tougher European standards. The investment which United Utilities is making will help to do this.

“The Environment Agency is continuing to work with farmers, business and water companies to reduce pollution and improve water quality across Lancashire and the North West.”

The Audley Range and Queens Park Road £2.4million projects, start on July 18 and 25, respectively and are due to finish in December or early 2012.

Diversions will be in place and some one-way streets will be temporarily open to two-way traffic.

The £5.4million Dickens Street work will start on September 25 and will last for 12 months.

Existing work on Bolton Road, Ewood, which has been running since May, will finish in early September.

In February 2012, a two-and-half-year project of sewer upgrades will start in Philips Road, Whalley Old Road, Beechwood Road and Harwood Gate.