AN £8million nature reserve is set to get the go-ahead after county planning chiefs gave it the seal of approval.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust is hoping to convert a former quarry near Samlesbury into a 112-hectare site that will attract 250,000 visitors each year.

A planning report says traffic safety problems have been raised in the light of other developments nearby that have already been given planning permission.

It also raises fears about using a country footpath as the main access to the site.

But it concludes that the development “achieves a high standard of restoration for the site”, and would provide “a valuable recreational and educational facility”.

The planned visitor centre and car park would not normally be acceptable on green-belt land, but special circ-umstances apply, it adds.

The scheme includes a cafe, education and exhibition facilities, fishing lakes, a water-sports area and spaces for 350 cars.

It has come about because of sand and gravel extraction work that was given permission in 1992.

The permission included a condition that the site be used for nature conservation for 50 years once it had been restored.

Controversial plans for wind turbines at the north of the Brockholes Quarry site as part of the project have been dropped.

The site, which is near junction 31 of the M6, was bought by the charity last year.

Lancashire County Council’s development control committee will rule on the decision at a meeting at County Hall in Preston on Wednesday.