NAVIGATION of the Leeds Liverpool Canal through East Lancashire will not be possible until early May after 'contaminated silt' was discovered.

Contractors working for the Canal and Rivers Trust (CRT) in Burnley have also confirmed the state of the retaining wall between Finsley Gate and Yorkshire Street is worse than expected.

Work was originally expected to be completed during March but now a May 8 reopening date has been set.

This means, as a result of the £1.2million operation, the waterway will not be open to boaters during the popular Easter holidays period.

A CRT spokesman said: "Further to our earlier updates, we are very sorry to report we will be unable to complete the repairs at Finsley Gate within the timescale previously advertised.

"Following the dewatering of the navigation, it was discovered the amount of silt along the length of the affected area was far greater than originally anticipated.

"In addition, once the navigation was drained, the silt was tested and found to be contaminated. When silt is contaminated, special measures have to be taken to remove it from site and to dispose of it safely. These two factors have caused significant delays to the project.

"Moreover when the navigation was dewatered it was found the retaining wall was in a much worse condition than initially expected. This has resulted in additional works too."

Boaters have faced a number of headaches along the Leeds Liverpool Canal over the past year or so. Water shortages led to lockgate closures through Blackburn and Burnley for months, before reservoir levels at the likes of Foulridge and Barrowford were restored.

The latest setback is not the only difficult engineers have encountered in Burnley. When it was drained in 2013 for similar work people had to be warned not to eat 200-year-old 'killer' mussels left exposed on the canal bed.