AN AMERICAN firm is stepping up its bid for permission to store potentially hazardous natural gas under the Wyre area.

Canatxx Gas Storage Ltd has now applied for Hazardous Substances Consent for a natural gas store beneath the area - and it will come under the spotlight at a meeting next week.

Although, like a still-to-be-resolved planning application, the final say rests with Lancashire County Council, Wyre councillors will meet next week to discuss their views on the scheme.

In a report to councillors, they will be advised that the scheme represents an 'unacceptable risk' to residents living close to the proposed wellheads and to features of nature conservation interest.

Councillors will also be asked to recommend that the county council asks for 'detailed and specific geological information' on the possibility to gas migrating from the caverns.

The Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency will also be consulted on the scheme, which is expected to go before Lancashire County Council later this year.

The report goes before the council's Planning Applications Committee, which meets at the Civic Centre, Poulton-le-Fylde, next week. The County Council is also expected to decide in December how it will react to Canatxx's decision to appeal against the council's failure to determine the application.

Councillors are also being recommended to give the go-ahead to a controversial housing development in Poulton-le-Fylde at Wednesday's meeting. Lytham-based Kensington Developments' plan for a 75-home development at the junction of Moorland Road and Garstang Road East has attracted 21 letters of objection from members of the public on a range of issues, including traffic concerns and loss of wildlife. But officers have recommended approval for the plan, which already has outline planning permission.