[Closed] Blue Lagoon, Belmont shocker

Dang! Skinny dipped in there in my youth.

That's terrible, I've got some fantastic shots of that, it really was a nice place to be.

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wonder what they'll find?

Dang! Skinny dipped in there in my youth.

+1 - was always bloody cold though.

wonder what they'll find?

I dread to think.

Nowt exciting so far by the looks of it!
[img] http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/resources/images/1312287/?type=display [/img]

Last time they drained it they got a Cortina and an Allegro 😆

staying drained as well ..... surely they could have raised the 40k to fix it?
Everyone has skiny dipped in there at some point....even my Mum ...thankfully I was not here at the time. Lovely little spot and a real shame

Everyone has skiny dipped in there at some point....even my Mum ...thankfully I was not here at the time.

i was 8)

I believe there was a residents meeting to try to raise the cash and interest in this, Lowey may be better qualifed to comment on this as he believes it is on his land and he lives in Belmont Village (I think)... 😆

Chris

Your mum really does have a lovely little spot.

But no shame.

lowey thats the second skinny dipping opportunity gone west , you should have jumped in the river in swaledale!!!!!

Nice work samuri, great pic.

There's quite a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes. Basically, a trust fund needs to be set up before any money can be raised. £40k is an estimate as to what the reparations will cost, however, there will be ongoing costs if the reservoir is indeed repaired. These would obviously have to be met by the trust.

As I understand it from the public meeting held in Belmont, there is already potentially £10k for the works from Blackburn council, and there are also plans for a small car park behind the church to hopefully cover 'less major' ongoing costs such as the yearly engineer's inspection.

There does appear to be a will to do something and with over 4500 members on the campaign's facebook group, theoretically, less than £10 per person would see it done. However, whether all 4500 would donate is an entirely different matter.

As has been discussed, the owner has 5 options available to him

1) Fix it and continue to pay for maintenance

2) Sell it

3) Donate it to a trust who would have to raise the money to carry out the work, and maintain it thereafter

4) Drain it permanently to a level below that which it constitutes 'a reservoir' under the reservoirs act. However, he may still have to pay for maintenance as the dam has a larger capacity. Also, most of the lagoon is shallow, so there's be a much smaller surface area of water. There would obviously be costs associated with making the resultant muddy mess safe

5) Breach the dam, ensuring that the reservoir can never refill. It then ceases to be a reservoir, there are no ongoing maintenance costs, but obviously making the site safe would come at some not insignificant cost.

The law sucks, but I'm fairly sure the people of Astley Bridge and Bolton would rather the dam didn't collapse when the reservoir's full. A close look at the horrific state the over flow is currently in indicates that this may not be such an unrealistic possibility. If the owner hadn't started draining, the EA were likely to move in, do the work, and bill him. Whilst this is probably fair, you can see why he's want to start draining it to avoid a £40k bill for something of no commercial value.

Everyone has skiny dipped in there at some point