Plans have gone in to build a chalet at the back of a museum which could be used for weddings and events.

Gaynor Seville, of the Whitaker Park Museum in Rawtenstall, applied to Rossendale Council at the beginning of August to build a single-storey chalet at the rear of the museum.

If approved the museum plans to use the new space for wedding events and associated photography, generating a new income stream for the venue.

The proposed siting is immediately to the rear of The Whitaker and its outbuildings, and would be accessed on foot from them, with the hours of use being the same as for the Whitaker.

A planning statement reads: “The museum building has been extended to link and to incorporate the adjoining stone barn so as to provide a café/restaurant, meeting and display rooms and a new entrance to the complex as a whole.

“The connection between the museum building and the original to provide the new entrance and café/restaurant has been achieved by the external use of glass and wooden vertical boarding rather than through the use of natural stone.

“The proposed chalet would be single storey and quite small, being some 7.75m2 by 5.35m2.

“Like the extension to the museum building referred to above, it is not proposed to use stone but would also be clad with weatherboarding.

"It would have a green, mineralised double pitched roof with an overall height to the building of some 3.14 metres.

“As well as reflecting the relatively new extension to the museum building, it would also have some similarities with the bowling club building in the park.

“It would be sited away from the tree canopy which edges the site and there would be no new or separate vehicular access to it.

“Thus, the general lawned setting to the museum and that of the appearance of park would be largely retained.”

Anyone wishing to comment on the plans can do so via Rossendale Council’s planning website.