BURNLEY Council has hit out at a neighbouring authority over its plans to build hundreds of houses on greenfield land.

Councillors say Pendle Council's plans will undermine proposals to regenerate previously developed sites that have been earmarked by both boroughs as part of the Elevate East Lancashire scheme.

They lodged their objections to proposals in Pendle's draft Local Plan - the blueprint for future development in the borough - to earmark more than ten hectares of greenfield land, or enough for 320 houses, at a meeting of Burnley Council's executive committee last night.

Councillor Peter Kenyon said: "Reviewing the draft Local Plan of a neighbouring authority is part of a standard process but it is usually the case that another authority's objections are around technical issues - but this is far from a technical issue.

"It is quite crucial to the Elevate programme for the regeneration of housing across East Lancashire, to which Pendle, I believe, is as much committed as we are. I do have to wonder how they have ended up in this situation where a significant part of their plan appears go against their own objectives under the Elevate programme."

The council is also concerned that Pendle's plans for new shopping developments will affect the viability and vitality of Burnley town centre and over Pendle's failure to identify future sites for industrial development.

Stephen Barnes, chief executive of Pendle Council, said: "We will look very carefully at what Burnley Council have said.

"But we have undertaken a most up-to-date urban capacity study which revealed that brownfield sites are not available in the borough.

"There are only three greenfield sites, with the capacity for around 190 houses, not 320.

"Some of the sites allocated for housing will not be used wholly for housing, for example the Lucas site will be used for sports and open space provision."