PROPERTY giant Wainhomes has avoided legal action by partially tearing down fencing which it erected around a green open space in Little Lever without permission.

Residents demanded the metal fencing round the land — which is owned by the property firm — in Lever Street be ripped down, describing it as an “eyesore” and magnet for yobs because of the “ginnel effect” it had created.

A Bolton Council spokesman said that legal action had been avoided as Wainhomes had written to the authority stating the barriers would be removed. Some of the panels have already been taken down.

But the spokesman added: “We have written to Wainhomes asking them to take down the remainder of the fencing.”