A LANDOWNER clearing a culvert that is causing flooding has been ordered to cease work after concerns by residents over trees being felled.

The blocked culvert, at Broad Hey Wood, off Ripon Hall Avenue, Ramsbottom, regularly causes flooding on the road and landowner, Derek Abbott had been told by Bury Council to rectify the problem.

But residents were dismayed when machinery moved in recently and cleared a large section of the land, including trees and vegetation.

Much of Broad Hey Wood contains trees covered by preservation orders and horrified residents were concerned that some of them may have been felled and wildlife habitats destroyed.

Council officials visited the site and have ordered work to cease until it can be assessed whether it is being carried out in accordance with regulations.

A spokesman for Bury Council: "There is a culvert on this land which is blocked and has caused flooding on Ripon Hall for several years.  "The council has issued the landowner, Mr Derek Abbott, with a formal notice asking him to deal with the blockage.

"The land also contains trees which have a blanket tree preservation order (TPO).  "While it is possible, in certain circumstances, for TPO trees to be removed in order to facilitate maintenance work, we need to be satisfied that the criteria for this have been met.

"We have therefore instructed the landowner to stop all operations and have visited the site to identify what has been done and ascertain what his plans are."

One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "Bury Council has finally forced Mr Abbott to repair the culvert.

"He appears to have taken this as a flag to devastate the woodland. The destruction caused to wildlife, habitats and the trees is heart-wrenching."

Mr Abbott, who had a planning application for a country club at the site refused in 2019, insists the land he has cleared is not subject to tree preservation orders.

He said: "The only trees on our report are willows that seeded themselves on that land, which is my land.

"There are preservation orders on all the decent trees — all the beeches and ashes and a few silver birches have preservation orders. It's a piece of land that's derelict and it's not Green Belt. At present, it has no classification."

A blocked culvert on the land has been causing flooding on Ripon Hall Avenue for five years.

In November last year Bury Council sent Mr Abbott a Section 25 order under the Land Drainage Act that requires members of the public and landowners to unblock pipes that run through their land.

Mr Abbott was given three months to find the blockage and fix it or face possible court action.

"I got a bit frightened because I don't want to go to court, I've never been to court in my life," said Mr Abbott.

"Finding the drain was hard as there's no paperwork, so the best way was to clear the weeds and willows to look for a drain and a manhole."

He added that the drain has been found and temporarily unblocked but it is not possible to get a lorry to it, enabling a permanent solution, without bringing down trees.

"As it stands, we are still going to court, but we think we have satisfied the Section 25 order by finding the problem that could have been unblocked if the planning department hadn't have stopped us," said Mr Abbott.

Mr Abbott added that he is still hoping to develop the land as a country club and wants to find a communal purpose for it.

"We thought we would do a country club because it was ideal.

"You wouldn't need to come out of the estate to go to the facilities which would be swimming pools, creches, playgrounds and 15 acres of woodland with walks that would come with the development.

"Some people were stopping us in the street and saying it was a wonderful idea and some of the objectors were totally short-sighted.

"I believe it's the only purpose for that land. It doesn't want housing or anything else, it wants something that can form a community spirit."

But some residents object to the idea and want the site replanted with trees, fearing that a country club or hotel will increase traffic and pollution levels.

Mr Abbott said: "I've met the residents at Ripon Hall and we've promised to get together and see what we can do to serve the community.

"The area won't be another woodland. All that land should have been pasture. The site should reseed itself now with grass.

"What we are doing for now is just making it safe for children and levelling it and hoping it grasses over."