DEMOLITION for a £319,000 luxury house is ‘essential to the continued operation of the Manchester to Bolton railway line’ after a nearby embankment became unstable.

The house, at Kearsley Green, Stoneclough, was built by developers Morris Homes close to the line in 2013.

Neighbours say ‘lives have been put at risk’ by the construction of the house, which they believe was built too close to the slope.

Now Network Rail has lodged plans with Bolton Council to demolish the house after earthworks on the railway border shifted, leaving it unstable.

The house was part of a 33-home development after planning was approved in January 2013.

Property websites list the last known sale as £318,500 in September 2020.

In a planning statement, a Network Rail official said: “The neighbouring Manchester – Bolton railway line is elevated on a steep embankment and retaining wall which also forms the rear garden boundary to 20 Kearsley Green. The earthwork embankment has become unstable, and requires regrading.

“Defects in the side of the railway embankment have been noted around one kilometre south of Kearsley station.”

The rear retaining wall had been showing signs of failure, the statement added.

Paula Taylor’s family has lived at a farm next to the affected area for more than 50 years.

She said her family now ‘feared for their safety’ after the shifts in the embankment and said that issues from building the house were ‘entirely predictable’.

She said: “It’s no surprise to us the demolition is needed. I could have predicted it when they built the house so close to the embankment. People’s lives have been put at risk.

“If you look at the original plans it states quite clearly that house does not fit, yet they were still allowed to build it.

“Before it was built it was a mass of trees, a pond used to form in the winter and there was frogs and all kinds of wildlife.

“When they pulled the trees out and then the roots I believe the wall holding the embankment up started to come away.

“This is not Network Rail’s fault. They have been brilliant and supportive and kept us informed of what they are doing to try and sort the issue.”

The proposed work will mean demolition of the house, regrading the embankment slope to renew the area of the large slip and reconstruction of the retaining wall.

The report adds: “Given the house sits at an angle to the railway embankment and is within the zone of the regraded slope, there is no possibility of retaining the house.

“Consideration was given to rebuilding but the remaining plot is not considered to be big enough.

“The remaining land will therefore be landscaped, with the provision of trees, perimeter hedging, and sewn with grass and wildflower meadow mix.”

The report’s conclusion said the need to stabilize and regrade the railway embankment ‘is essential to the continued future operation of the Manchester to Bolton railway line’.