A MOTHER has condemned proposals to build 58 flats on the site of a former hotel in Walton-le-Dale claiming extra residents would leave services, such as dentists and doctors, overstretched.

It comes as developers Persimmon Homes put forward plans to build a three and four-storey block of flats on the derelict site of the former Vineyard Hotel, Chorley Road.

But Alison Bretherton, of Hennel Lane, fears the plan would swell numbers for essential services which, she claims, are already under pressure.

At a meeting at Bamber Bridge area committee meeting on Tuesday, Mrs Bretherton, 38, told councillors: "Doctors, dentists and schools are already packed and I would presume that these new flats will bring families with children which will make the situation worse.

"A medical centre that incorporates an NHS doctor and dentist would be ideal because there just isn't enough at the moment.

"Either that or a community centre that will give everyone, particularly teenagers in the area, somewhere to go."

More than 30 people attended the meeting at St Aidan's Church hall, Station Road, Bamber Bridge, to express their opposition.

Their anger has been heightened because a similar plan two years ago in which George Wimpey Homes wanted to build 66 flats standing two and three storeys high was refused by planning chiefs.

Simon Wilson, whose house in Drakes Hollow backs onto the site said: "I have a little girl called Erin and my wife, Hannah, is due to have another baby very soon. It worries me that people living in those flats could see into the bedrooms.

"We won't know who is living there. With the threat of paedophilia, I'm very concerned about who is going to see into our house."

At the meeting Steve Bennett, councillor for Bamber Bridge North, said there had been 137 letters of objection in just three weeks collected from the post office on Cinnamon Hill.

After the debate councillors agreed to recommend the plan be refused when it goes in front of the council's planning committee.

Councillor Jim Owen, chairman of the area committee meeting, said: "We have never been against development on that site but we just don't want one of the density Persimmon Homes have submitted."

A decision is expected to be made at a planning meeting on March 31.