War to save woodland

Lostock and Chew Moor Conservation Group -- which has more than 500 local residents signed up in support -- is incensed at Bolton Council's decision to allow part of St John's Wood to be used for a soccer club's car park and changing rooms.

Already the residents have put in a bid to manage what will be left of the woodland so that it will remain a vital shelter belt on a busy bird migration route.

The controversial planning approval was given by councillors on November 2 despite massive objections from local people and conservation organisations such as Bolton Wildlife Advisory Group and the RSPB.

But instead of regarding it as a battle lost, local people are now joining forces for the next stage of the fight. Conservation group secretary Margaret Edge believes that when councillors gave the go-ahead for the soccer club scheme it lit the blue touch paper in the neighbourhood.

"This has made everyone very aware of how a lovely area like Rumworth Lodge and its surrounding woodlands and fields can be slowly lost by being developed at the edges," she said. "We are determined that no more will be lost."

Only in August, 1999, residents were celebrating when plans for a golf course round Rumworth Lodge were thrown out by Deputy PM, John Prescott.

Margaret Edge says the residents are not merely licking their wounds after losing the latest planning battle.

They are already working on positive proposals to preserve all that is left of Rumworth.

They have already put in a request to lease the remaining part of St John's Wood -- off Tempest Road -- from Bolton Council, which owns the land.

The residents want to call on expert advice and then manage the wood for the benefit of wildlife.

They are pressing for the lodge and its green surroundings to be designated a Local Nature Reserve on the same lines as Doffocker Lodge, a mile and a half away. And they want the whole area to be made a Site of Biological Importance to give some protection to Rumworth land which is not owned by the council.

Paul Goodman, head of policy and transport planning at Bolton Council, said "We welcome ideas and input from the local community. Already the Unitary Development Plan, which will be finalised in the next 12 to 18 months, includes a Local Nature Reserve at Rumworth Lodge.

"But it does not include the whole area, because much of the land is privately owned.

"It would be difficult to change the UDP at this stage. It has already gone through the first stage. But that does not mean a Local Nature Reserve covering a wider area is ruled out. Issues such as that can continue after the UDP is published."

Fred Lovell, who was one of the leading lights in the battle to save St John's Wood, said everyone was bitterly disappointed the council had not accepted the campaigners' argument that the small woodland was a vital part of the Rumworth landscape. He said: "Already housing development is getting closer all round the site and we fear that now this latest application has been granted, small areas of land will be gradually taken until only the lodge is left."

In its written objection to the St John's Wood soccer club development, Bolton Wildlife Advisory Group urged the council to stop "a jewel in Bolton's landscape being nibbled away at the edges".

Tony Johnson, former leader of Bolton RSPB and a member of the advisory group, said: "The woodland is owned by the council but management of it has been pitiful. It is a very visual shelter area on the Rumworth skyline that is vital to migrating birds.

"The woodland on its own would probably not warrant SBI status but in relation to Rumworth Lodge it certainly does."

Rumworth water does not flow through the taps, even though it is called a "reservoir" on older maps. The lodge provides compensation water so that Middlebrook, which flows through Bolton to the Croal, never runs dry. It is a magnet for birds, particularly on spring and autumn passage when many rare species have been recorded. Fields between the wood and the lodge are also the site of rare autumn crocus.