Legal action is still being pursued by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC), as progress on repairing a section of collapsed Chester City Walls begins this week.

A section of the walls between St John Street and Newgate Street, near the Eastgate Clock, collapsed in January 2020. CWaC put a temporary walkway and scaffolding in place, but for the past four and a half years, repair works have not taken place.

That was due to an impasse between the local authority and owners of the site where the wall collapsed. Access to the site has been difficult due to it being landlocked.

However, progress has been made, as CWaC confirmed last week progress on repairs would begin this week. At this early stage, utility workers have been seen gaining site access via a wall and temporary scaffolding. The initial stage has focused on site clearance, with workers clearing away 8ft-tall vegetation following years of weed growth.

Last week, Councillor Karen Shore, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for environment, highways and transport, said: "For reasons beyond the control of the council, repairs have not been progressed as quickly as I would have liked.

"However this is a significant capital scheme involving a scheduled ancient monument that has required a great deal of planning with our heritage engineers, project managers, contractors and insurers, together with a great deal of technical work required to overcome the challenges of accessing such a constrained site and to obtain the relevant consents from English Heritage.

“The last of those challenges has now been overcome and I look forward to seeing the scheme progress.”

In January this year, the local authority had added legal action was being considered to recover costs from a third party over possible grounds of negligence that led to the collapse.

At the time, a spokesperson for the local authority said: "The council began a legal process to seek recovery of costs from those third parties who are believed to be responsible for the collapse, letters of claim have been issued. The prospective defendants deny wrongdoing."

Asked for clarification if that was still the case, this week Cllr Shore said: "As you are aware letters before claim were issued in December and those claims are yet to be resolved. Progress in relation to site access is being made and we are hopeful that this will be resolved without the need for litigation.”

Should the council feel there are enough grounds for negligence and proceeds to prosecution, given the costs involved, the case would likely be heard in the King's Bench Division of the High Court.

More scaffold propping has been designed to support the partially collapsed inner wall to prevent any further damage, with a roof added for further protection. This will be installed in the first phase of the repair work.

The local authority added it has spent more than £6.1 million over the past 10 years on the upkeep and repair of the Grade I/II*-listed walls. All changes to the wall, including maintenance and repair work, need Scheduled Monument Consent from the Secretary of State.

About three million visitors use the walls each year, it is estimated.