A PUBLIC inquiry to decide the fate of a Bury wildlife haven could be postponed until the summer.

Stately Developments, the company behind plans to build on the Barracks Lodge at the rear of Newington Drive, have asked the Planning Inspectorate to delay the inquiry scheduled for January 11, 2000.

The developers claim that it is not possible to carry out a wildlife evaluation study in the winter and need until the spring and summer to fully assess the value of the lodge.

However, local campaigners have accused Stately of stalling for time to increase their chances of killing off the remaining wildlife on the lodge.

Mr Michael Wellock, chairman of the Barracks Lodge Community Association, said: "Stately drained the lodge in October and again in November after draining it twice before in June and July and will obviously go on doing it into the drier months of next spring and summer.

"Their aim is to prevent any form of wildlife breeding in the lodge. "By delaying the inquiry until the summer, Stately will have an even better chance of ensuring all the wildlife associated with Barracks Lodge is killed or wanders away to die without a habitat.

"They intend to provide a survey next year showing that there is no wildlife left in the lodge."

Mr Wellock is now urging residents to write to the Planning Inspector at Tollgate House in Bristol to object against the inquiry's deferral.

"We need the inquiry in January to bring matters to a conclusion."

In Stately's request for a deferral, the company states: "We have taken the advice of an independent consultant ecologist who has advised that it is impossible during late autumn and early winter to survey the remaining water and therefore, if the inquiry were to continued as proposed in January 2000, then the inspector could not have before him any proper evaluation of the current ecological condition of the site."

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