PERMISSION has been granted to allow a Ramsbottom EG Group petrol station to open all day, despite objections from residents.

Euro Garages Ltd, owned by Blackburn billionaire brothers Moshin and Zuber Issa, submitted a bid to develop their site on Stubbins Lane and allow it to open 24 hours a day.

On Tuesday, Bury Council's planning control committee voted unanimously in favour of the bid.

A number of complaints were put forward by residents, on the grounds that the unit causes light and noise pollution, increased traffic and encourages youths to loiter in the area, making them feel unsafe.

Residents have also said that they have been disturbed by lorries arriving and leaving the site in the early hours of the morning, and taxi drivers revving their engines.

Cllr Cristina Tegolo, who was present at the meeting to discuss the proposal, said: "All applications have been considered very thoroughly and with things like this, there are always concerns about youths loitering and noise pollution.

"We have indeed looked in the area and investigated the potential to create a disturbance to residents and a noise report was submitted to the committee.

"Going off the report, we have to look at the information put in front of us, which suggests that the proposal would not create a significant rise in noise pollution.

"If you live in an urban area, it's reasonable to assume that residents can expect a certain degree of noise pollution.

"Light pollution should not be a problem and if it causes a problem to residents and we continue to get complaints, then there are a number of controls we can put in place, but I certainly think the planning department did its job in approving these proposals."

Cllr Jackie Harris added: "We have talked about the concerns of residents in great depth and I have great sympathy with residents on these issues.

"The decisions of the committee are not taken lightly, but we have strict rules for how we operate and unfortunately we can't really take things such as the potential for youths to take part in anti-social behaviour because that is not in our remit.

"Residents are understandably concerned, but we can't let businesses just ride roughshod over them, but in these case we deemed that their concerns weren't enough to stop us from agreeing to the proposal, unless the business has been breaking the law in any way."

Euro Garages Ltd have been approached for comment.