A family firm is to move to the site of a recycling centre which cost the council a multi-million clean-up operation.

EasyLawn is to move from Hacken Lane to Oakenbottom Road on the site of what was once SC Chadwick & Sons.

Chadwicks abandoned the land in 2016 and, after an investigation by the Environment Agency, father Michael Chadwick and sons Gary and Sean admitted a number of breaches of its environmental permit.

The trio were sentenced to suspended sentences and tens of thousands in compensation.

The Bolton News:

However, the recycling centre cost the council a multi-million clean-up operation after it acquired the land in 2016.

All there is left is the burnt-out building to which firefighters were once called six times in a matter of two months.

But this is to change as a family firm is to turn this burnt-out building into a base for its business.

The Bolton News:

EasyLawn was once one man selling bags of soil from the back of "a clapped-out van", but it is now "a one-stop shop" selling a range of materials and services for the garden.

Sandra Arden, the company secretary and the wife of director Jamie Arden, said: "Jamie started the business on his own when he was around 20. 

"He had a clapped-out van and he sold bags of soil. He built it slowly but surely over a long time."

And on the "bad history" of the site, Mrs Arden added: "This is nothing to do with us. It cost millions to clean it up and it is going to cost a lot for us but it is good for the area. 

"It is going to be hard work, but we are not afraid of hard work."

Adele Warren, the Breightmet councillor who signed off on the lease for Oakenbottom Road in her role as the cabinet member for regeneration, said: "It is a positive outcome for a site with such a bad history.

"We consulted with residents and no one wished for it to return to a recycling centre. I am pleased to be welcoming EasyLawn to Breightmet."

This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.