A WATERWAY which snakes its way over the county border from Barnsley into Wakefield is set to see a raft of improvement work to enhance its water quality after experts revealed it’s struggling to achieve better ecological status.
A £1.6m investment to reduce sewage discharges into Owler Beck, a tributary of the River Calder, will commence next week.
The project, which is being completed by Ward and Burke, will see the creation of 19.5m3 of additional storage in the sewer network upstream of the storm overflow by installing a weir chamber and box culvert.
The new storage and upstream pipework will hold almost 20,000 litres of wastewater during periods of heavy and prolonged rainfall, reducing the number of times this is discharged into the watercourse.
Once completed, the project will reduce discharges from Bleakley Lane’s combined sewer overflow in Royston into Owler Beck, to less than ten per year on average.
Yorkshire Water’s project manager, Wayne Cocksedge, told the Chronicle the project is due for completion by Christmas.
“This is vital work that we know is very important to our customers,” he added.
“We’re pleased to be getting underway with our work at Bleakley Lane as this will make a significant difference to the number of discharges into Owler Beck from this site.
The project follows a £4.8m investment to reduce storm overflows into Applehaigh Beck and Hessle Beck in 2025.
The project, completed in mid-2025, reduced discharges by 50 per cent in 2025 when compared to the previous year, with further reductions expected in 2026.
A spokesperson from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust said it’s part of a continued series of work to improve the beck.
“Water is an important and vital resource, but data collected by the Environment Agency revealed that the Owler Beck catchment is struggling to achieve the ‘good ecological status’ needed.
“This is likely due to years of urban and rural pressures and alterations that have removed the diversity of the environments and left the watercourse silty.
“A lack of invertebrates and the presence of pollutants were some of the key indicators that the river was in poor health.
“The Owler Beck catchment covers villages in the area including Royston, Newmillerdam, Havercroft, Notton and Ryhill.
“Many animals including fish and aquatic insects have difficultly surviving in water that is too silty as they lay their eggs on clean gravels.
“By stabilising the banks with new plants we can help reduce the amount of pollution reaching the water which will help these aquatic creatures survive.
“In December, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust organised a training session for water quality survey volunteers hosted at the RSPB Old Moor’s wetland centre.
“The training was delivered by the Anglers’ Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) trainers and taught citizen science volunteers how to check water quality by identifying and counting various small invertebrates.
“This survey information goes directly to the Environment Agency and allows them to better monitor the catchment for negative changes to the water course.
“The best part of working in this project is getting to know the community when we are working on site.
“It is amazing how much support locals have for the environment and I think this enthusiasm will last long into the future.”
