ENFORCEMENT action is being considered by Burnley Council after it was discovered that work at the former Padiham Power Station had breached planning conditions.

The Shuttleworth Mead site has outline planning permission for industrial development with a planning agreement that certain areas of ecological interest should not be developed in any way until an environmental assessment had been carried out and a landscape management plan approved.

The agreement was signed by the site developers -- Ribble Industrial Estates Limited -- and the conditions were made clear to them.

But a visit to the site by planning services last week revealed serious damage had been caused to one of the specified ecological areas.

Karen McCabe, head of planning services, told the development control and highways sub-committee how the old rail sidings which over the years has developed a rich and varied habitat of lime loving plants, had been stripped of its top soil.

The council has asked the developers what steps they intend to take to remedy the situation in order to restore or recreate the habitat. Planning committee chairman Coun Steven Large said: "In granting planning permission for Shuttleworth Mead, the council gave a public commitment that this site would be developed with respect for the environment.

"The developers' action in damaging the valuable sidings ecology is a breach of this commitment.

"I will be seeking all possible ways of ensuring that this habitat is restored and any further damage to the environment of the site is prevented."

Coun Large read out a letter from the contractors, who apologised for the breach of commitment and promised to create new areas.

But Coun Gordon Birtwistle said: "That apology is nothing more than an insult. It's pathetic.

"How can you put back something that has been there 100 years? It's like cutting a tree down and saying sorry I've pulled down the wrong one."

No-one was available to comment at Ribble Industrial Estates Limited.

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