PROTESTERS have vowed to step up their fight to save a piece of Marsden history.
They have pledged to continue the fight to keep a 106-year-old spillway at Butterley reservoir.
Yorkshire Water has announced plans to carry out repairs to the spillway which carries overflow water from the reservoir.
But they said the new construction would be in concrete which has angered many local residents.
They are fighting to keep the Grade II listed structure in natural stone and insist Yorkshire Water must come up with alternative plans.
A Facebook campaign is already gathering support and posters around the village urge others to get involved.
The residents plan to put their concerns to YW officials at a meeting on May 10.
One of the protest leaders, Ian Ladbrooke, said: “We are an action group set up to try and save the spillway.
“It’s a remarkable landscape feature that is known and loved by both villagers and visitors.
“Yorkshire Water is planning extensive works which will result in everything that is special about the spillway being lost.
“Someone obviously thought it was pretty special back in 1985 when the spillway was listed and all we want is to preserve that status.
“If this heritage is lost in this new scheme, it will be lost forever”.
Yorkshire Water hopes to convince villagers that similar work done at reservoirs around Holmfirth shows what can be done.
At the meeting on May 10 they aim to bus residents to sites to show the new spillways.
But Mr Ladbrooke said; “Butterley spillway is the only listed one of its type in the country. It is special and should not be destroyed.
“This group is not about building huggers. We realise that safety standards need to be met, but Yorkshire Water needs to find acceptable alternatives.”
A YW spokesman said: “Since initially unveiling our plans to undertake this vital work we’ve liaised closely with the local community, meeting with residents and local councillors to elicit their opinions.
“This process is still ongoing and we’re still listening to their views and opinions with a view to taking these forward where we can.
“As part of our ongoing liaison we’re taking a group of local councillors and members of the local community up to the site to show them work we’ve done on other spillways in the area to demonstrate the lengths we’ve gone to in order to ensure any improvement work is carried out in aesthetically sympathetically way.
“For example, at Riding Wood spillway, where we are taking the group, we took a mould of the existing wall and used a state of the art formliner technique to ensure that new structures looked exactly like the old ones
they replaced.
“It’s important to stress that this work is vital to ensure this reservoir meets the ever stringent Reservoirs Act 1975 and remains absolutely safe and operationally sound for generations to come.”
The protest group can be contacted on 07582 713907.
The May 10 meeting is by invitation only, but people can book through the group’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/SaveButterleySpillway
