A BEAUTY spot has been hit by a landslip, and work to restore the area is expected to take up to eight weeks.

The slip occurred in the Crimple Valley, a Special Landscape Area which separates south west Harrogate from Pannal village alongside Crimple Woods.

Tons of earth slid down a hillside below Fulwith Road, near the foot of Almsford Bank, which is part of the busy A61 Leeds-Harrogate road.

The force of the landslip caused a sewer to collapse and Yorkshire Water is working on site to repair it, having shored up the hillside.

A bridleway has had to be diverted while work continues, but a spokesman for Yorkshire Water said public access would be maintained via the diversion. He said: "We have been working closely with the landowner to ensure everything is moving ahead as smoothly as possible. But because part of the bridleway was affected by the landslip we have had to divert this right of way."

Extensive work means that a number of mature trees have been axed but the spokesman said any trees lost would be replaced.

"We are aware that this is an environmentally sensitive area and a local beauty spot and we are bearing that very much in mind as the work continues," said the spokes-man, who was unable to say what had caused the hillside slippage, which has now been corrected.

The site, at the bottom of Almsford Bank, houses stables and overlooks a greenfield site, which had been earmarked by Harrogate Borough Council for development of a new ground for Harrogate Rugby Union Club