CONTROVERSIAL plans to build a new industrial estate creating up to 600 jobs in Huncoat have been given the go-ahead.

The decision was met with anger from dozens of villagers who had turned up to protest against the development on land south of the former Huncoat Power Station.

Although the majority of the plans fall on 8.42 hectares of greenfield employment land, one-third of a hectare of green belt land in the north-eastern corner will be used for an access road.

Hyndburn Borough councillors debated whether the promise of 600 jobs to the area was worth the loss of greenbelt land to nearby residents, before the planning committee gave conditional approval of the scheme last night.

Permission was refused last year primarily on the grounds that greenbelt land should not be encroached upon and that industrial units already in the area were struggling to find occupants.

However planning officers told councillors that applicant GN Properties had worked closely with them on changes which include more landscaping, and restrictions on building heights near Towneley Avenue homes.

Developers aim to build an industrial estate with a mix of office, industrial and distribution uses, which they say will create hundreds of much-needed jobs.

Ian McCann, from campaign group Huncoat Voice, was applauded as he told the meeting: "There are more suitable sites just a bit further away at Altham or east to the M65. If this is passed we are going to be completely surrounded. This latest application is practically identical to the first. I don't see what's changed."

Huncoat ward Councillor Dave Parkins was booed by the public gallery as said he felt he could not turn away the prospect of so much employment: "I would not be a good ward councillor if I stood in the way of 600 jobs.

"The greenbelt encroachment is minimal compared to the amount of jobs it will create, especially in the current climate. This land is earmarked for employment and if people had concerns about that they should have spoken up earlier. The ship has sailed."

Chairman of the committee Coun John Griffiths said: "I feel the loss of hedgerows and stone walls would be detrimental and should be preserved for future generations. "However you don't want to give them wonderful green fields but without any jobs."

However Coun Clare Pritchard told the meeting: "There can be nothing more intrusive to residents than this development. It's a dirty great industrial estate in the heart of a village."

The power station site itself is due to be turned into a waste treatment plant, with new access roads built to ease the flow of lorries to the site.

Residents had also fought a campaign against this scheme.

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