EMERGENCY canal repairs, which prevented a flooding disaster from hitting Skipton town centre, have been praised.

In November 2000, during one of the wettest autumns on record, 14 days of continuous rainfall caused critical damage to a walkway between Eller Beck and the Springs branch of the canal.

There was a high risk that it would collapse allowing the water from the beck to flood the canal. The surge would have overtopped the banks and flooded houses, business and transport links.

More than 100 houses were evacuated as British Waterways fought to control the torrent.

Now the £122,000 repair works have been recognised by the civil engineering industry.

The project has been commended "for excellence in concept, design and execution" by the Yorkshire Association of the Institution of Civil Engineers in its 2002 awards competition.

The danger of the causeway collapsing was first detected during a routine inspection on November 1 2000.

Emergency works began the following morning, continued through the night, despite the continuous downpour, and were complete 31 hours later.

Full repairs, delayed by the continuing bad weather and then by foot and mouth took a further nine months. It was not until early June 2001 that boats were able to cruise along the Springs Branch again.

With the high water levels and the ferocity of Eller Beck preventing immediate repairs, initial efforts to avoid the catastrophe centred on constructing a temporary dam in the canal by the Royal Shepherd pub.

If the causeway had given way, the dam would have prevented the surge of water flooding the streets.

When the floodwaters in the beck receded an inspection revealed that the causeway had eroded to less than half its original width.

Access to repair the 250 metre long causeway was made difficult by the fact that it was only accessible from the ends. The owners of Skipton Castle helped by allowing the contract team to the based there.

A spokesman for British Waterways said: "Throughout, work was complicated by the need to avoid damage to the heritage and ecology of the site, all of which lay within the conservation area.

"Today it is visually difficult to detect evidence of the repairs, a design requirement aimed at maintaining the conservation area. The causeway walls were rebuilt and repaired with the original stone where possible."

Alan Bates, British Waterways manager for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, said: "We are delighted to receive the commendation for excellence which recognises the ability of British Waterways to rise to the important and difficult challenges of keeping waterways safe whilst protecting heritage and the environment."