A BATTLE of the bedrooms has erupted after a motel bosses failed to get a rival firms' development plans rejected.

Councillors have given permission for Whitbread, which runs the Travel Inn chain of budget hotels, to build a three-storey, 43-bedroom motel on land off Eccleshill Link Road in Darwen.

The site will also include a Brewsters family pub. It is close to junction four of the M65, where Travelodge opened an hotel in December last year as part of a service station complex which also includes a petrol station, McDonald's and Little Chef.

In a letter to the planning and highways committee, Travelodge site supervisor Helen Challerner said: "Our premises were denied a liquor licence and to grant one to the proposed site would be unfair. We would question the viability of another hotel in such close proximity, and there would be confusion for potential customers."

The letter went on to complain that the new hotel would overlook several properties on a nearby street, and questioned whether too much traffic would be generated. Several residents in nearby Martinique Drive also complained, fearing the hotel and pub would generate noise and overlook their homes.

Planning officer Chris Livesey told the committee: "This site is earmarked for business and industrial use so it is quite likely that noisier uses could be permitted on the site."

Councillors approved the project on the understanding that a landscaping scheme would hide the development from houses in Martinique Drive. A report to the committee said the area could sustain a second budget hotel without damaging the council's bid to get a major hotel operator into Blackburn town centre.

Whitbread operates 310 of the Travel Inn hotels across the country. The new Travel Inn is already listed in their hotel directory for spring 2003.

Nobody was available to comment at Whitbread.