Residents with homes overlooking a park in Bury have been 'strongly advised' to keep away from the end of their back gardens following a landslide which has been 'years in the making'.
People living on Cromwell Road - opposite Springwater Park in Whitefeild - were on lookout following the incident on Friday (January 29).
Warning letters have been sent out by Bury council.
High river levels caused by storms Dennis, Ciara and most recently storm Christoph have caused further damage to parkland - and left homes directly above a path teetering on the edge of the landslide.
A footpath to Sailor Brow, along with the entrance to the park on Radcliffe New Road, have been shut.
The trail is where most of the damage was caused after heavy rain caused the River Irwell, which runs through the park to burst its banks.
Alan Bailey, 67, has lived on Cromwell Road for 39 years.
He said he used to be able to walk to the park via his back garden.
"We used to be able to walk down, it was always sloping but we could walk, now you’d have to parachute down the back," he said.
"It started to deteriorate with the first big storm a couple of years ago, I reported it to the council and they had people coming back and forth, but it wasn’t unit last Friday when they delivered letters through our doors telling us what's happened."
Another resident said the situation has left them anxious. he state of the land has left them ‘anxious’.
"It’s no surprise at all that we’re in this situation," they said.
"I went down at the weekend after receiving the letter and I was horrified at the severity of it.
"Our garden is fine, its our neighbours on the other side of the road who are on the edge.
"With the weather getting worse, we’re anxious."
Just metres away from the entrance of Sailor Brow, metal fences have been put up as part of flood defence work being carried
More robust temporary fences and signage is currently being put up on Sailor Brow as council staff keep an eye on the situation until an electronic monitoring system can be installed in the next two months.
The council is carrying out work to review the issue. Back in 2020, they commissioned a civil engineering consultant to investigate the affected areas.
The company has since revisited the site and is working with the town hall to assesses the short term and long term plans for the area.
Bury’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, Councillor Alan Quinn told the M.E.N: "We’ve been quoted by our consultants that it would cost £5m to £6m to rectify the problem.
"Whether we get this money from the government or not, the work has to go ahead, the safety of our residents is paramount
"We’ve had it confirmed that this is storm damage.
"The most recent landlside was caused by Storm Christoph, but this has been years in the making and we’re going to have to get engineers to design the scheme and stabilise the bank.
"We'reg going to send in electronic probes to monitor the movement of the land too."
