LOWTON and Golborne residents turned out in force to learn more about plans to create a new community woodland on former farmland at Byrom Hall.

Forestry Commission representatives outlined their plans for the 28-hectare site to a packed audience at Lowton Community Hall.

The new woodland will boast a mix of woodlands, open pasture and wetlands, as well as a network of footpaths, woodland rides and a circular multi-user track.

The area, between Byrom Hall - the ancestral home of the poet John Byrom and the Lightshaw water treatment works on Lightshaw Lane, is also an important habitat for wildlife.

The wetlands of the Hey Brook corridor border the site to the north and part of the area has been designated a site of biological importance for its wildfowl and amphibians.

Funding for the development of Byrom Hall community woodland is coming from a £9 million grant from the government's Capital Modernisation Fund (CMF), part of which is being used to create recreation and conservation facilities across a thousand hectares of urban fringe land in the Mersey and Red Rose Forests in the north west of England and Thames Chase Forests in the south. The North West Development Agency (NWDA) is also supporting the initiative by making £2.8 million available so that the partnership can extend its initiative and provide an additional 212 hectares of community woodland in the Mersey Belt. Martin Reynolds, land regeneration manager for the NWDA, said: "Schemes such as those at Byrom Hall will provide attractive, well-managed places for people to use and enjoy. By investing in networks of regional park resources close to urban areas where environmental quality is limited, the agency intends to improve the image of districts to the benefit of local businesses and communities."

For more information about Byrom Hall Community woodland contact Dave Baxter on 859520.