POLLUTED rivers in Bolton, Bury and Leigh are set for a major clean up in the next five years.

Water company bosses are set to plough millions of pounds into a huge programme of investment to clear the towns' waterways of sewage.

It comes after Government ministers outlined a series of environmental improvement schemes which the companies will be obliged to fund in the next five years.

And Environment Agency chiefs say the multi-million pound programme will benefit Bolton and Bury directly, with an end to all river pollution caused by sewage discharges.

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Clive Gaskell, the Environment Agency's regional water quality manager, said: "We are delighted that the Government has given its wholehearted support to our environmental programme.

"Last May we set out what we wanted this programme to achieve. We wanted to see the end to sewage fouling our riverbanks and beaches, and prevent our precious rivers and wetland sites from drying out.

"This new investment programme will banish the last vestiges of the Victorian sewerage systems into the history books forever and , at last, set environmental standards for the 21st century."

It will also mean an end to the uncontrolled discharge of untreated sewage from coastal towns which will benefit hundreds of miles of North-west coastline.

The Environment Agency has now written to North West Water asking the authority to include their programme of environmental obligations in a draft business plan to be submitted in April.

A spokesman for the water company welcomed news of the ministerial guidance on water quality.

He added: "We will be submitting proposals for North West Water's environmental improvement nprogramme to the regulators in our business plan submission in April.

"The quality programmes will form a substantial part of our investment programme for the five year period to 2005."

The boost to local waterways comes just weeks after NWW bosses unveiled a £3 million project to improve river water quality in Jenny Beck and Bradshaw Brook, both tributaries of the River Croal.

The environmental works will improve six combined sewer overflows, reducing the amount of water spilled from them into the two waterways during periods of heavy rainfall.

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