RESIDENTS are angry and concerned about the razing of beloved parkland between Ramsbottom and Summerseat.

The private land, at the back of Whittingham Drive, is used by walkers, dog owners and nature lovers.

It was also home to hundreds of wild orchids and wildlife such as deer and foxes.

It is believed developers are preparing the land to be built on, but that has not been confirmed.

Pictures published on social media show the effect of the destruction, with once colourful fields reduced to a flat, brown site.

And some residents have even posted images of dead animals, killed as the field was laid flat.

Rebecca Hall, who lives in Brooksbottom Close, said: “It’s awful and heart breaking.

“I have so many photos of it before and now it’s like an atomic bomb landed on it.

“Even my daughter, who walked our dog down there, rang me upset over it.

“I’ve never seen the field like that ever in the 27 years I’ve lived here.

“For them to reduce the field to this is awful.

“They reversed over the trees to knock them down.”

Shel Badge, aged 37, who lives locally and who regularly visits the land with her family, said: “I am totally bereft and grief-stricken.

“We have always walked through there, and this is where I taught my daughter how to spot wild orchids and what trees are what, and this is a butterfly, this a moth, things like that.

“Yesterday I saw a sparrow hawk hovering, and all I could think was there is no food for him down there anymore because it has been taken away.

“Beautiful surroundings have just been lost.

“The land is now desolate and bare, it’s quiet and it used to be beautiful. I feel great loss as it is all open and there is nothing interesting to see or hear.

“There’s the odd magpie but nothing else apart from the occasional deer popping out from the wooded area.

“I feel it’s had a detrimental effect on our woodland.

“God knows what they have taken away with them, they have taken away a natural meadow and just scalped it down to the ground.

“It just feels like such vandalism.”

It is believed Peel Investments own the land but this has not been confirmed.

The company has been contacted by the Bury Times but has not responded.