PLANNERS at Hyndburn Council have declared themselves vindicated after government inspectors upheld a decision to remove a showpiece garden.

Frank and Rosemary Jackson appealed last year when the council said they had to remove a summerhouse built on green belt land near their home at Holme Lea, Clayton-le-Moors.

An enforcement notice was served last October insisting the summerhouse, a statue, stone seat, pathways and gravel areas should be removed within four months. But the couple, who had spent £12,500 on the garden, said the council were being excessive and hadn't given them enough time. They asked for nine months to comply with parts of the order.

An initial objection asking for planning permission to be granted was subsequently withdrawn but they argued they should be allowed to keep some of the paths and flower beds.

The inspector said the site looked like a domestic garden and was therefore an "urban intrusion" into the narrow area of green belt between Great Harwood and Clayton-le-Moors.

He didn't accept the couple's view that fencing off the land from the rest of the garden and removing the structures would restore the openness of the area, and concluded that retaining the paths and flower beds would be contrary to green belt policies.

All evidence of paths and the stone edging on the land must be removed, he said, but allowed the couple six months to comply.

At a meeting of the council's development services committee, Coun Win Frankland said: "There were letters from MPs about how mean the planning committee was being to do away with the gardens.

"But we stuck by the rules and have now been vindicated. The appeal has been dismissed. We were right."

Coun Jim Dickinson said: "We took a very strong position and said it didn't matter how beautiful a garden was made, it should go so far and no further.

"We stuck to the letter of the law and were right to uphold these positions.

"We took this green belt to be sacrosanct and were pilloried."