Lytham St Annes Civic Society has teamed up with the Heritage Trust North West to try and rescue the walls which either need repairing or are being knocked down by residents.

The two organisations are to launch a project with the aim of mapping, photographing and classifying all the cobble walls in the area.

It is then hoped a 'best practice' guide can be issued to householders to repair them and use craftsmen employed by the Heritage Trust.

Marion Coupe, chairman of the civic society, warned of the loss of the walls and pavements in the organisation's newsletter.

She said: "There has been growing concern over the state of the local cobble walls and pebble pavements, mostly to be found in Lytham.
"The pavements are to be found in Bath Street and Queen Street. Once some of them work loose, the tight arrangement is lost and they start to deteriorate quickly.
"Many of the walls have been lost and object to their demolition as proposed in planning applications on a regular basis.
"Some are over six feet high, largely rear garden boundary walls and some are small and decorative, usually at the front of properties.
"The boundary of the Lytham Hall parkland is marked by high cobble walls, which are listed by English Heritage.
"Some walls are in a poor state of repair and more have suffered from poor repairs. This is particularly evident along Blackpool Road, Ansdell and Ballam Road, Lytham."

She told the Express: "It is unfortunate because everybody likes to see them. The really big ones that tend to be used in Lytham are boundary and rear walls and these are the ones that are getting knocked down because people want to knock down rear walls and put garages in which is fine, but there are ways of doing it. I'm not saying don't change anything."

She added: "Think of tourlsts who walk down the back streets of Cornwall - the same goes for Lytham."
She said she had visited Suffolk and Norfolk where pebbles are used in construction but not in the same way as Lytham where the designs are "unique".