Campaigners 'delighted' housing estate turned down

Dr Jane Wilcock is from Friends of Harwood and Longsight Park

Controversial plans to build a housing estate next to an area full of wildlife have been turned down, despite planners recommending it for approval.

More than 300 people objected to 20 homes being built on two fields near Longsight Park in Bolton, which is labelled as a Site of Biological Importance.

The land is home to wildlife including mammals, insects and birds - including tawny owls.

Campaigners said they were "absolutely delighted" that "the ecological argument" had been listened to.

The previously protected land is next to Longsight Park in Bolton

"This is somewhere where our ancestors have walked and we want our children to walk as well," Dr Jane Wilcock from Friends of Harwood and Longsight Park said.

"The area is full of veteran trees. There are badgers, deer, fox, rabbits and field mice," she said.

"There are also wild flowers and therefore insects, including bees."

Developers wanted to build the 20 homes off Longsight Lane in Harwood near Bolton, next to the Castle Croft and Bradshaw Brook SBI (Site of Biological Importance).

Seven of the houses would have been classed as affordable.

The site is three acres of grassland, scrub, brambles and broadleaved trees.

Planners had recommended the scheme for approval but councillors rejected the development.

A Site of Biological Importance is valued for its biological diversity

Dr Wilcock said: "We didn't expect it to be rejected at all and we're absolutely delighted.

"We don't feel this is nimbyism, we feel this is an ecological argument."

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust said the land was a natural form of landscape that enhanced the adjacent Site of Biological Importance.

They also said that housing would change the landscape and impact on the adjacent woodland.

The Woodland Trust had objected to the scheme due to the harm to seven veteran trees on the site.