COUNCILLORS ignored a controversial freeze on new housing and voted that a former Co-Op shop should be changed into two-bedroom flats.

The move at Hyndburn Council's planning committee went against planning officers, who recommended that the application for five new homes be refused.

The borough already has a backlog of 640 housing schemes in the borough, prompting the county council to recommend a freeze on new applications being approved in its joint local structure plan.

The councillors' amendment was based on an exceptional circumstance that it would regenerate a disused building and benefit the people around the site in Station Road, Huncoat. Although Coun Tony Dobson voted in favour of the officers' recommendation he called for the policy to be sorted out, which Hyndburn Council planning officer Brendan Lyons said would happen before the next meeting.

In the same meeting councillors also approved an application to build 15 homes in New Lane, Oswaldtwistle, because provisional "outline" permission had already been granted nearly three years earlier.

Mr Lyons had said that the council would have rejected this if at had gone through today, but they could not turn back the clock.

However, councillors agreed with officers and refused applications for two other residential developments in Oswaldtwistle on land at Whams Brook, off Rowan Avenue, and at the former Essoldo Bingo Club, in Union Road.