A new junction, spur road and works on Atherleigh Way have been approved ahead of a bid to build hundreds of homes and work floorspace in Lowton.

Planning permission has been granted for a new road behind Arlington Drive, allowing for access onto the Pocket Nook site – but plans for 600 homes and 15,000 sqm of employment floorspace at the site are yet to be submitted.

The junction would be a traffic signal controlled T-junction, with two lanes for traffic goin straight ahead on Atherleigh Way and a dedicated right turn lane into Pocket Nook.

It comes after Wigan council said compulsory purchase powers could be used to develop the land which has been earmarked for housing despite one of the landowners saying he has no intention of selling his family’s farm on the site.

The proposed development features in the Greater Manchester’s masterplan for housing, jobs and the environment – but the future of the spatial framework is now in doubt due to a dispute over green belt land in Stockport.

But the land at Pocket Nook remains in the council’s local plan for the borough so it could be developed regardless of the rest of Greater Manchester’s plans.

The planning committee considered objections to the new junction, spur road and associated engineering works in Atherleigh Way at a meeting on Tuesday.

Residents in Arlington Drive told the council that the mature trees that would be felled to facilitate the work act as a noise barrier to nearby traffic and said the ’10-year recovery plan’ to plant new trees on the land ‘is not acceptable’.

They also complained of light pollution, public rights of way being cut off and claimed that the risk of serious traffic accidents in the area would remain high.

Planning agent Louisa Fielden from Avison Young, submitted a written statement to the committee on behalf of applicant Milnes Gaskell Estate.

She said: “The proposed development is important for the future of this part of the borough as it will secure critical site infrastructure that will unlock the redevelopment of the wider Pocket Nook site.”

But Lowton East councillor Kath Houlton said what Wigan really needs is a new bypass to cope with congestion created by new housing in the area.

She said: “This road is going nowhere and all it wants to do is facilitate more housing without any infrastructure which will just put more vehicles onto the East Lancs Road and onto Newton Road.”

The committee approved the application with nine votes for and two against.

Planning officer Joe Nanson said the work is unlikely to go ahead until other applications come forward, but planning permission will expire after five years.

No applications for housing at the Pocket Nook site have been submitted yet.

A separate but similar application for a new junction, spur road and associated engineering works to the south of this site in Atherleigh Way has been submitted by Morris Homes and is still under consideration by the council.