The cost of repairing a stretch of riverbank near a Brighouse tip has more than doubled to £188,000.

In the past 12 months a short section of the River Calder bank adjoining a landfill site at Cromwell Bottom, Brookfoot, has eroded. The site was used as a tip by West Yorkshire Waste Management in the 1990s but is now closed.

In November, members of Calderdale Council's Cabinet were told repairs to the riverbank were an estimated £91,000.

The new cost of £188,000 was announced after completion of a project appraisal and tendering for a contractor. Cabinet members have authorised paying the bill.

If the problem is not rectified and the bank gives way again, pollution could seep into the River Calder. This could lead to Calderdale Council's prosecution by the Environment Agency.

Alan Hardwick, head of the Cleansing Services Department, said the riverbank needed repairing before it encroached on the landfill site.

"I understand the cost has increased because there are more difficulties associated with getting access to do the work than anticipated," he said.

"People who put in tenders for this type of work are specialists and come at a price - their original cost was only an estimate. We have to accept that riverbank works of this kind in a position like this aren't that common.

"The problem is the position and the fact that landfill sites are difficult places to work anyway. Perhaps if the river was deeper and more navigable, this could be done from a barge, but it's not possible."

A report by the Council's Group Director of Health and Social Care, Philip Lewer, said the only route to the eroded area for heavy plant was across the surface of the landfill site and the base of operations would be very close to the weakest point.