BOLTON wildlife groups have welcomed news that Red Moss at Horwich has now been officially confirmed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The moss, which is proposed as a waste tip site by Bolton Council, was notified as a SSSI in January after a previous designation had been quashed in the High Court on a legal technicality.

But now, after nine months' consultation, English Nature, the government's conservation agency, has formally adopted the site as a haven for wildlife.

English Nature spokesman Bernard Flemming said: "English Nature's Council has considered all the representations made and has resolved to confirm the notification." Environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts say the ruling is another nail in the coffin for Bolton Council's plans to convert the area into a massive tip serving the needs of Greater Manchester in partnership with UK Waste.

Environment Secretary John Gummer has already warned that the council needs to prove that the need for a strategic waste disposal site heavily outweighs the need for nature conservation in the area.

Bolton RSPB boss Tony Johnson welcomed the decision and said it confirmed the vital importance of the site for birds and wildlife.

He said: "This is important because it is a diminishing habitat and has a reasonable bird population which would improve dramatically if it was managed properly.

"Bolton Council are supposed to be formulating their own Local Agenda 21 as a follow-up to the Rio Earth Summit and they should have the preservation of Red Moss as the flagship of their plans."

Ann Selby, the director of Lancashire Wildlife Trust, was also delighted at the news.

She said: "I am extremely pleased to see the SSSI has been confirmed and I hope there will be no more contesting of its status.

"This site is of great national importance and is one of the last examples of this kind of habitat in the region." Friends of the Earth campaigner Dennis Watson added: "We would say there is no way it can ever be used as a landfill in the light of the secretary of state's comments about SSSIs and the council might as well forget about it."

A planning application by UK Waste is believed to be imminent and it is likely it will go to a public inquiry next year.

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