WORK has finally started to prevent Cowling children trudging through raw sewage to get to school.

The Herald reported on April 4 that resident Chris Kerrigan had discovered sewage in a puddle of water outside the primary school by using tracing dye in the sewer pipe. The problem is believed to have been caused by a blocked drain.

But protracted talks between Yorkshire Water and North Yorkshire County Council over who is responsible for the drain has meant it has taken two months to move forward.

Yesterday (Thursday) as the Herald went to press we were informed that exploratory work had finally begun to discover what the problem was. Steps are also being taken to establish the owner.

Due to the lack of pavements, the children are forced to walk through the contaminated water to avoid the traffic down Winkholme. The situation appears to have been going on for some years.

In April officers from Yorkshire Water and North Yorkshire County Council's highways department gave Mr Kerrigan their reassurances that the problem would be sorted out at the end of that week.

"Since the article appeared, absolutely nothing has been done regarding the broken drain, so their assurances that something would be done by the end of the week was yet another empty promise," Mr Kerrigan said earlier this week before workmen moved in.

"This has been going on for years and still nothing gets done about it."

Last week representatives from the Highways department, Craven District Council's environmental health department - which has the power to enforce action if necessary - and Yorkshire Water carried out tests on the drain to find out who it belonged to.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Water said that the tests proved that the drain did not belong to the company.

"We have investigated this again and it is not ours. We have no records of it and we believe it is a highways' sewer so we are going to be speaking to them. We did jetty it to clear the blockage, but it is not ours," he said.

Highway's divisional engineer Richard Marr said that the delay had been due to long negotiations with Yorkshire Water.

"They have washed their hands of it, so it looks like both ourselves and the environmental health department will have do something out there," he said.

"I have contracted some exploratory work to be carried out to try to find out what the problem is. Someone needs to do something to get the issue moving."

Mr Marr said that the initial work was to be carried out quickly, while the children were away from school.

He said that although he had taken on the issue, the owner of the drain had still not been determined. It could belong to the school, or householders or be a public sewer.

He has ordered plans of the drainage system so that ownership can be determined.

Tim Bassett, team leader for Craven's environmental protection, said that he was reassured that the problem was being resolved.

He said that these delays were inevitable when it came to drainage, and that he had not considered taking enforcement action.

Mr Kerrigan said he was delighted to see the road had been dug up on Thursday morning, and something was finally being done. "At least the Highways department has said they will do something about it," he said.