AN isolated farmhouse featured in a first world war TV remake is at the centre of another battle.

Coal merchant Paul Rogers is determined to fight to keep his green belt dream home which he's being told to demolish by planners who thought it was out of their bounds.

Councillors this week visited Nook Farm on Astley Moss then backed planning officers' advice to refuse permission for the rebuilt home.

They also ordered an enforcement notice which means pulling down the house - but Mr Rogers intends to appeal against both decisions.

"I've no choice but to appeal," he told The Journal. "It's ridiculous."

He claims a planning mix-up helped turned his dream into his worst nightmare.

He thought he'd found his idyllic home when he began rebuilding derelict Nook Farm on Astley Moss, not thinking he needed planning permission before rebuilding the structure which was last inhabited in 1957.

But an enforcement officer from Wigan Council told him he shouldn't have started without it.

"I'm not a developer, I'm a coal merchant. When I bought Nook Farm and just over four acres of land from Ellis Tonge I thought it was all right to go ahead with renovation because the basics were there," said Mr Rogers, who lives in Eccles but runs a fuel company in Astley Green.

"I sought professional advice then Wigan Metro informed me the property was not in Wigan - they told me it was in Salford and was nothing to do with them!

"So we contacted Salford planners and a building Inspector came out to meet our architect. He told him he was quite happy with what he saw and we could carry on.

"Then after starting work in November, Wigan's enforcement officer came along and told us 'it's not in Salford it's in Wigan' and ordered us to stop!

"Wigan are trying to say this was an abandoned dwelling and shouldn't be here. But there was already a building here with four walls and gable end.

"I have proved the house had not been pulled down to the foundations as suggested by some planning officers who didn't even know where it was and have never been down to look.

"I think Wigan planning department has treated me disgracefully. If the house had been within the Salford boundary - as they originally thought - I'd be living in it now!

"I have brought a bit of Astley history back to life."

The farmhouse, last lived in 43 years ago, featured in battle scenes for the A Family at War TV series filmed there in 1973.

Mr Rogers' retrospective application for the house raised access concern from the Environment Agency which manages the Moss Brook.

His application was supported by several people with one objection from landowners Peel Investments (North) Limited who own adjacent land.

Land manager Colin Green wrote: "This building has been built in a wholly inappropriate location within the green belt without planning permission.

"The previous house was abandoned, became derelict and was demolished apart from a small section of wall .... as a consequence the residential use terminated.

"It is a fundamental and serious breach of planning control. There can be no justification for approving it."

Development Control Committee vice-chairman Cllr Steve Hellier said: "It was a unanimous decision to refuse the application and go to enforcement. He will be instructed to take it down.

"We are the guardians of the green belt and there is strict control over what can take place within such areas. There was a boundary mix-up but that doesn't interefere with the planning aspect."