PARCELS of woodland, redundant water storage tanks, a reservoir and even a former water treatment works are going under the hammer at Roadford this month.

Around 40 sites owned by South West Water, which are no longer needed by the company, are being sold at public auction on March 26 at the Lakeside Centre at Roadford Lake.

Twelve underground water storage tanks, from Looe in East Cornwall to Haldon Hill near Exeter, are among the lots. The auction will also include a variety of land parcels, ranging from amenity land of less than an acre to more than 300 acres at Vennford reservoir, near Buckfastleigh.

Other lots of interest include a self-contained open-air reservoir at Butterbrook, near Plymouth and the former Watercombe Water Treatment Works on Dartmoor.

The company's property manager Chris Shapland said: 'We regularly auction redundant assets to reduce our costs and keep customers' bills as low as possible. Fifty percent of the proceeds of the sale of the land will be returned to customers through South West Water's next price setting.

'Novelty sites with small areas of surplus land always attract strong interest as people are able to invest relatively modest sums for their "little piece of England."

'Several of our former storage reservoirs and pumping stations have been converted by their new owners into unusual homes.'