HOT weather is speeding-up work on Ashton's and Neumann's Flashes, after Cheshire County Council won £2.2 million funding to regenerate the area.

Around 73 hectares of land - a Grade A site of biological importance - will be developed as community woodland and added to the Mersey Forest. Sixty thousand cubic metres of soil will be imported for the planting of new woodland along the New Warrington Road site.

The project also includes the creation of footpaths and fencing to allow public access and management of the calcareous grasslands and wildlife habitats.

Cheshire County Council's Environmental Planning Service secured multi-million pound funding from the North West Development Agency for carrying out the works and as a contribution towards managing the site.

Work began in February 2003 with great crested newt migration and scrub woodland clearance in advance of the main environmental regeneration works, which started in July.

A spokesperson for Cheshire County Council said: "We have made good progress because of the hot weather which made the land less damp and soggy than normal.

"At the moment we're re-shaping the bunds, which is the embankment, to make it more even for when we put footpaths down. Work should be finished in December."