PEOPLE are being told to stay away from part of a woodland while dead trees are felled.

Bolton Council is to fell dead trees and plant new ones within the Wilderswood plantation in Horwich.

Wilderswood was planted in the early 1960s but in recent years many Corsican pine trees have died off as a result of pine needle cast fungus.

The council has now taken the decision to clear, fell and thin large areas of the woodland during February.

It will also use the opportunity of clearing these dead trees to change the structure of the woodland from conifer plantation to broadleaf woodland by replanting it with tree species including oak, beech, alder, birch and rowan trees. The work has all been approved by the Forestry Commission through the English Woodland Grant Scheme.

Cllr Sufrana Bashir- Ismail, Bolton Council Executive member for cleaner, greener, safer, said: “We would like to ask the public to help us by avoiding the felling, thinning, and extraction route areas within the woodland whilst the works are taking place.”

Last year, plans to build a children’s play area at Wilderswood were scrapped after Government funding was reduced.

Bolton Council was expecting a grant of more than £450,000 to fund the creation of new play areas, but that figure was cut to just over £275,000, a reduction of almost 40 per cent.

The remaining money is to be shared between schemes in Queens Park, Longsight Park and Vicarage Road.

The Wilderswood play area plan was cancelled because it was due to be part-funded by the Forestry Commission, but it was forced to pull its funding.