A BUILDER has gone on trial accused of wilfully ignoring demands to restore countryside land behind an East Lancashire pub.

Stan Ainsworth, of Ribble Valley Luxury Homes, was ordered to remove compacted stones, tarmacadam and chippings from land behind the former Glory pub, in Burnley Road, Loveclough, by Rossendale Council.

And the authority told Ainsworth and his firm they must reseed the area around the former hostelry, off the A682, so that it matched a neighbouring field, Preston Crown Court was told.

Under the Town and Country Planning Act, an enforcement notice, also asking the developer to restore land levels to their original form, was issued in September 2016, gave him four months to comply.

But the builder, 73, of Eastham House Farm, Clitheroe Road, Mitton, near Clitheroe, lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate, the court heard.

An inspector agreed with Rossendale Council though, said prosecutor Scott Stemp, though he extended the period allowed for the works to eight months instead.

Mr Stemp said the breach of planning control related to “the raising of ground levels and the formation of a hardstanding”, behind the former pub.

He told the court that the land in question was first bought by Ainsworth in November 2014.

An enforcement officer first visited the location a short time later, after complaints were received that a storage container had been installed there, along with a pile of chippings and some tarmacadam.

He told jurors that planning permission was eventually successfully obtained to convert the former pub into a number of new homes.

“I say that you do not need to concern yourself with this permission because it is really nothing to do with the case we are talking about,” he added.

James Dalgleish, a former enforcement officer for Rossendale Council, was asked to visit the site on a number of occasions during 2015 and 2016.

He told jurors he witnessed the levels of the land being gradually altered by Ainsworth and his company repeatedly bringing in materials from outside the site.

Recalling the aftermath of one inspection, Mr Dalgleish added: "There is an increase in the amount of imported materials.

"You can see that soil has been placed to the left of the storage container, to extend a raised platform westwards. You can also see some aggregate placed on top."

Ainsworth and Ribble Valley Luxury Homes, of which he is a director, are each accused of three offences of failing to comply with the council’s enforcement notice. The trial continues.