A section of wall alongside the River Parrett in Bridgwater crumbled last month forcing 19 families to be evacuated from their homes.

Somerset County Council has now agreed a £1.5m repair programme which will see the West Quay repaired in stages.

The council hopes its innovative engineering fix will get the job done in a few months rather than a year taking traditional methods.

Somerset County Council Cabinet member Harvey Siggs said: “We will pilot some repair work and if that solution works, we’ll roll it out across the rest of the collapsed wall.

“We are confident that this will work but, of course, we have a plan B to fall back on. However, it would be far more time consuming and would take over a year to complete.”

The pilot work will involve working from the road and the north end of the site.

The collapsed material with be replaced with concrete held in place by a mixture of piles and ground anchors to stabilise the wall.

The second phase of the work will involve facing the wall with concrete panels and if the work goes well, the project will be completed by the end of the summer.