ORFORD residents have expressed fears that three vital wildlife havens are about to be demolished by the borough council.

Investigative work began on the former railway embankments this week with a number of 'trial pits' being excavated. Households received letters saying that concerns had been raised about stability, tree growth and security, and that the council was looking at the options available.

There are three sites involved one bordered by Hallfields Road and Alder Lane, which backs on to Orford Park, the second next to Alder Lane and Central Avenue, and the third next to Hale Street and Central Avenue.

But residents say that the embankments are inhabited by a wide range of animals and birds, and are keen to see them left intact.

Rev Steve Parish, vicar of St Ann's Church, said: "These are valuable wildlife corridors, but there seem to be some who are keen to remove them.

"I'm not worried about the security issues, in fact, there was an intruder who escaped up one of the embankments and he must have been cut to shreds. In my view, they are so overgrown that they do not provide easy access and there have even been requests from residents that the council prunes them."

Rev Parish says this is not the first time that the embankments' future has been threatened, and that about eight years ago, residents held a successful campaign.

Dave Stamp, head of the council's landscape services department, said: "It is not the case that we are planning to demolish the embankments, what we are doing is investigative work to determine what they are constructed of.

"We need to have this information for management issues which affect the trees on the sites. There are questions of stability and we are responding to concerns raised by residents.

"If there are issues around stability we need to look at the options."