HISTORIC wells which previously served as water supply to Clitheroe residents should be treated as an important cultural asset, councillors will hear.

Ribble Valley Council community services committee members will receive an update on work to identify ownership of the wells so heritage lottery fund cash can be put to use restoring them.

A report to go before the committee states ownership of Towns Well and St Mary's Well is unknown, while it is believed Stocks Well is already under the council’s ownership.

The council is seeking legal advice as to how it can establish ownership of the sites so funding can be accessed.

Civic society officials in the town and several councillors last year called on Ribble Valley Council to help preserve Stocks Well, Towns Well, which is also known as Heild Well, and St Mary's Well.

Once the three supplies provided Clitheroe with its drinking water but today they are all capped.

In a letter to the council, last October, the town wells working group, which includes civic society chairman Steve Burke and Cllrs Alan Know, Ian Brown and Maureen Fenton, urged officials to back a possible Heritage Lottery Fund scheme to repair and preserve the well, as part of an enhanced town trail.

They insisted that such an approach would sit well with the new Ribble Valley Tourism Management Destination Plan.

Now a progress report will go before the council's committee services committee next week.

Mark Beveridge, the council's community services director, said: "The council has been in touch with the Heritage Lottery Fund to discuss the options available for funding any works on the wells.

"As expected, they confirmed that any work on the sites could only be considered for grant funding if ownership was established.

"The current state of all three wells is poor from a maintenance perspective; however there is no plan to address this now for the well the council may own, nor is there budget provision at present.

"However, HLF would be willing to consider an application to their small grant fund up to £10,000 from the council to investigate the scope of work needed to address the maintenance issue for all three wells, in addition to establishing ownership of Heild and St Mary's wells.

"This could then form the basis of a future bid for a larger sum, which would, assuming the ownership issue is resolved satisfactorily, enable the maintenance issue to be resolved and the interpretation of the wells in terms of the cultural history of the town."

Members are being asked to authorise director of community services, John Heap, to proceed with the HLF application and establish ownership of the wells as well as determining the scope of maintenance works needed.