DAMAGED walls at Christchurch Priory are set to be repaired in a £60,000 project. Members of Christchurch council’s planning committee approved work to rebuild several sections around the scheduled monument on Thursday, admitting that “a lack of maintenance” was responsible for their poor state. Nine sections of the wall and archways, some of which date from the medieval period, will now be repaired by the council, four years after originally being deemed necessary. “Invasive plant and tree growth” and rusting ironwork have caused several stretches of the walls around the priory to become unsafe with some areas having to be fenced-off. Speaking at Thursday’s meeting of the planning committee, Cllr Clare Bath said: “All of this work has come about because these walls have not been maintained and managed in the past and obviously it’s going to be a very expensive project to put right what hasn’t been maintained in the past.” She asked that the council properly maintains the walls and their surroundings once the project is finished to protect them from further damage. As part of the works, some walls will have to be taken down and rebuilt so that roots of plants can be fully removed while in other areas archways and retaining structures will be repaired. Cllr Frederick Neale, the council’s heritage champion, said: “I have walked many of these walls and seen much of the decay that’s gone on and I feel that we have lacked in being able to maintain them and there have been many other members with me on various tours and it is nice to see that it’s actually come forward now, although it may be a bit late. “I am pleased that we are now looking at it and are going to be doing something about them and it will open up more access to the public as so many entries are barricaded or boarded up because of the damage to the structure.” The committee agreed to give the go-ahead for the work to repair and rebuild the walls.