Landowner facing legal action over broad restoration They want the wooden quay, paths and boardwalk he is accused of building removed from the 60-acre wildlife attraction along the boundary of South Walsham and Ranworth in Norfolk. Mr Pooley has now started informing visitors of the decision through leaflets. The father-of-two writes: "Please enjoy Sotshole. This may be your last opportunity if the Broads Authority has its way. "Sotshole has not been "urbanised." It has been restored. "This is one broad that has been brought back to life without any public funding - and now the Broads Authority seriously wants us to believe that it is to be "restored" to its "original (dead) condition."" Mr Pooley, who lets the public in on open days as well as for a bluebell walk, has won unanimous backing from South Walsham Parish Council. Council chairman Peter Crook said: "Local residents have been interested to see the scheme progress and everyone is astounded that the Broads Authority has threatened legal action." Mr Pooley bought the site from Fairhaven Garden in 2005 when he viewed it as a project for his eventual retirement. After he left his job as boss of an oil company based in West Africa, residents watched a string of diggers, tractors and dredgers arriving on the site. Over a three-year period, Sotshole Broad, which was essentially a shrinking pond, was restored to its dimensions shown on an old Victorian map from 1886. Mr Pooley said Broads Authority officers had approached him in 2008. After inspecting the broad in a rowing boat, and finding it devoid of life apart from lilies and reeds, they suggested they could work with him to restore it with the help of government funding. But a year later he was told that the cash was being used on other larger projects. As a result Mr Pooley launched his initiative in January 2010. When I started, the whole site was totally inaccessible. The water was only 6ins deep and the broad was totally dead. There were no fish or anything," he said. We have taken three years to dig it out to a depth of 3ft to 4ft. It is now teeming with fish, including pike, and there are otters and kingfishers about. Swans have nested for the past three years and my neighbour Charles Cator has mentioned birds that I have never even heard of. Mr Pooley said that one of the new paths he had created, which was on the bluebell walk, was giving access to superb wet woodland for the first time in decades. But Andrea Long, director of planning and strategy at the Broads Authority, said: "Sotshole Broad is in an isolated, remote and unspoilt location and we feel that the additional hard edged quay heading and boardwalks are inappropriate for the area. The Broads Authority always tries to resolve these matters through negotiation rather than taking formal action. She said they were happy the broad had been dredged and were not asking Mr Pooley to fill it back in. But he has now been advised to apply for retrospective planning permission concerning the rest of the work he has done on the site. The authority's planning officer, Cally Smith, said at the committee which resolved to take legal action that the changes were unlikely to be given retrospective permission because of the "significant impact on the character of the area."