PLANS to demolish a well-known Blackburn hotel and build 40 homes instead have been scuppered by planning bosses, who feared it could wreck nearby regeneration projects.

Cumbria-based Persimmon Homes applied to Blackburn with Darwen Council for permission to knock down The Bear Hotel, in Cravens Brow - the former Red House opposite Oakdale housing estate.

In its place, it wanted to build 10 houses and 30 apartments in two-storey and three-storey blocks.

Council officers urged members of the borough's planning and highways committee to reject the scheme on the grounds it would contribute to an over-supply of homes - and put pressure on Cravens Brow, which makes up part of the A666.

A report to the committee stated that continuing to approve new developments could seriously undermine the success of the Housing Market Renewal scheme, currently in its infancy across East Lancashire.

It involves spending hundreds of millions of pounds revamping areas with scores of empty homes.

The report went on: "Housing Market Renewal aims to re-focus an element of demand in inner urban areas, both into existing housing and new developments within those areas.

"In this context, given the location of this site on the edge of the urban areas of Blackburn and Darwen, it is considered that a housing development is not appropriate at this time."

It added: "The proposed development would place an unacceptable burden on the access into the site from Bolton Road and Cravens Brow."

A petition with 50 signatures opposing the scheme was also received from the committee, as well as six individual letters opposing the project.