WILDLIFE campaigners have made a £10 bid to buy a wildlife haven at the centre of a planning dispute.

They made their offer for Bury's Barracks Lodge after learning that the owners, Bolton-based Stately Developments, had ceased trading.

Permission for the firm to develop the site was refused earlier this year and the company went into receivership last month.

Campaigners who fought the plans now hope to buy the land at a knock-down price.

Ecologist Mike Wellock, from the Barracks Lodge Community Association, said that their offer of £10 to the receiver had been greeted with a positive response.

He said: "The receivers are coming to realise that what they have on their hands is a liability. No businessman would touch the site because there is nothing they could do with it.

"We're elated that we've had the chance to purchase the land.

"I feel sorry for people who have lost their jobs, but I just feel that the lodge is so valuable."

Mr Wellock said that the association would apply for various sources of funding to maintain the site and insure it against legal liabilities.

He added: "We're hoping to find out if we've got it just after Christmas and there will be a big celebration if we succeed."

The aim would be to turn the lodge into a nature education site for schoolchildren.

As well as water voles, amphibians and bats, the area boasts 66 species of invertebrate which include rare dragonfly and diving beetle varieties.

The receivers, accountancy firm Ernst and Young, said they were not in a position to comment on the likelihood of the bid's success.