THE large peat bog fire which burned for two days has now been put out. 

Firefighters left Lindow Moss at 3.30pm yesterday after 48 hours of tackling a large peat bog fire, which at its biggest covered one-and-a-half acres of land.

The huge blaze hit the peat bog on Tuesday with Cheshire Fire Service being alerted at around 3pm.

Lindow Moss has proved controversial over many years.

Saltersley Common Preservation Society has pleaded for intervention over peat extraction in the area claiming the land has become prone to a severe level of subsidence and that the number of water voles has also declined.

Croghan Peat Ltd was granted permission to extract peat in the area almost 20 years ago by the former Cheshire County Council, provided they abided by 51 planning conditions.

In 2016 SCPS chairman Tony Evans also wrote to the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, asking for pressure to be put on Cheshire East Council to halt peat extraction on the site.

The letter followed Mr Osborne’s own attempt to discuss the issue with CEC, who told the MP that ‘there was no evidence’ to support Mr Evans’ claims of subsidence caused by the peat extraction.

Andrew Round, interim executive director at CEC, said at the time: “More information has come to light as a result of the current planning application on the site. This hydrological information has been scrutinised by the Environment Agency and they have found no evidence that there is a causal link between the peat extraction activities and local subsidence issues. At the present time, there is no evidence of a breach of planning control that could warrant enforcement action being taken.”

This week Mr Evans says he believes that the cause of the fire could be traced back to a decision not to install a sluice at the settling ponds.

He said: “I believe it goes right back to the original conditions that Cheshire County Council were supposed to put in place.

“They were supposed to install a sluice at a settling pond and that was to maintain a minimum water level. The enforcement officer at the time decided it wasn’t necessary.

“As a consequence they went deeper and deeper into the trenches draining the bog until now the water level has dropped so much that the peat that’s there is tinder-dry.”

A spokesman for Cheshire East Council said: "Given that this incident is still being dealt with by Cheshire Fire Service, it would be completely inappropriate to speculate on the cause this fire."