A DEVELOPER ordered by the council to reinstate a stretch of canal destroyed without planning permission has submitted new plans to ‘landscape’ the area instead.

The destruction of the canal has been blasted as ‘diabolical’ by a member of the Dearne and Dove Canals Trust who says the canal must be reconstructed.

Earlier this year one side of the former Dearne and Dove canal bank was removed at Stairfoot, behind the businesses of Barnsley Trade Park off Wombwell Lane, while two new units were being built.

The unauthorised works prompted outrage from nearby residents - at first they were complaining that an informal footpath had been closed, and that trees and vegetation had been stripped back.

Read more in this weeks Barnsley Chronicle