DERELICT land in Ellesmere Port can finally be transformed into a community woodland after herders prepared to remove an endangered species.

The disused site at chemical firm Cabot Carbon, in Lees Lane, was one of the first in the region to be approved under the Newlands scheme.

The £500,000 initiative aims to provide a wildlife habitat for recreational use.

Regeneration of the land, which lies next to the M53 in the Stanlow area, was hoping to start at the end of last year but had to be delayed due to newts hibernating on the site.

However, experts can be called on to the wasteland to herd off the rare species from the nine-acre plot.

Work will begin later this summer on a makeover of the neglected site.