A STATE-of-the-art office complex, promising 125 new jobs, is set to be built in a village after developers overcame protests from residents.

Neighbours claimed the plans, drawn up by Lancashire County Developments Ltd, would cause highway safety problems for pupils at the nearby Stonefold Primary School, Rising Bridge, and elderly resi-dents.

But borough councillors felt that the scheme, which will bring £825,000 in grant aid from the Northwest Development Agency to clean up the Blackburn Road site, was too good a prospect to turn down.

Coun Christine Lamb said: "It is an exciting scheme which will bring a lot of high-quality jobs into Rossendale.

"This site has been earmarked as the most desirable location for development in the whole of the valley.

"We have a lot of people who commute out of Rossendale for work and this would help to keep them in the borough, and it will also affect how they spend their money on the way into work."

Coun Gladys Sandiford, who represents a Haslingden ward, added: "We need some well-paid jobs in Rossendale and this will provide them.

"We are a low-wage economy and this will introduce high-quality employment oppor-tunities into the area."

But residents’ spokesman Anne Kenyon said: "Our main concern is for the children at the school and the elderly people who live in the bungalows nearby. This will make it almost impossible to cross that road.”

Mrs Kenyon said she had conducted surveys along Blackburn Road showing that more than 1,500 vehicles had used the stretch outside the site in just two hours.

The developers have proposed £35,000 for cycling facilities within the futuristic office complex, and another £12,000 for a new access to the primary school and an upgrade for a bus stop.