LYTHAM'S 70-year-old jetty could be raised to new heights with a £190,000 rejuvenation project.

Fylde Council has put together a package of partners to help raise, restore and widen the jetty as a leisure amenity, their main hopes hanging on a bid for 80 per cent funding from the Lancashire Waste Services Environmental Fund.

A decision is expected by the end of September.

The 250-metre long jetty has been slowly sinking under encroaching silt since Ribble estuary stopped being dredged in the 1980s. The aim is to raise it by a metre and double its width to ten metres for the landward stone end and five metres for the seaward timber end.

Fylde leisure chairman John Longstaff said: "It would be an amenity not only to be used by the boat users at Ribble Cruising Club but by birdwatchers and tourists simply wanting a stroll. It would also be extremely useful for the RNLI inshore lifeboat in case of emergency."

The council is offering £20,000 to the project and hopes for support from the cruising club, RNLI, RSPB and Lytham Civic Society. Fylde MP Michael Jack has also been helping drum up support from local businesses.

Fylde principal engineer Denis Hague said the scheme already had planning permission and was ready to launch as soon as funding was in place.

"Raising the jetty by a metre should keep it clear of the silt for the foreseeable future," he said.

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