THE owner of a piece of land next to the A590 between Barrow and Ulverston has denied he plans to build on the site after planning bosses ordered him to stop work.

A number of industrial diggers have been clearing trees on a piece of land adjacent to the A590 at Lindal since last month.

Landowner David Armer says the work is in response to a formal request from South Lakeland District Council's environmental health department to clear the invasive knotweed plant which has been identified on the site.

However, the council's planning department has since visited the site and ordered that the work stops, with officers claiming it represents an "engineering operation" that is likely to cause "serious harm to the character and appearance of the area".

The Evening Mail quizzed Mr Armer about the clearance works when they started back in January, amid residents' fears it could be part of controversial proposals to build a concrete plant.

Speaking last month, Mr Armer said: "We got a letter from the council saying that we had Japanese knotweed on the site and it had to be removed.

"The problem was, the site was that overgrown we had to dig a lot out to find it."

Mr Armer also clarified that it is land next to his, owned by another landowner, where L&W Wilson hope to build the concrete plant.

"The clearance work I'm doing is nothing at all to do with the concrete plant," he said.

"I've had a lot of phone calls asking me if it is though."

Mr Armer has today confirmed that work has stopped on the site.

He denied that the clearance work is connected to any plans to develop the land.