PLANS to create a golf course, which would tip up to a million tonnes of landfill in the process, look set to be thrown out by councillors.

The move comes after a series of concerns were raised about the plan, near Feniscowles, including the risk of stray golf-balls landing on the nearby M65.

Other potential problems raised by objectors include damage caused to roads on the outskirts of Blackburn by the lorries taking waste to the site.

More than 250 letters of objection have been received by Blackburn with Darwen Council, and a public meeting held in September resulted in a massive show of public opposition.

Councillors have been recommended to refuse the application by Blackburn Golf Developments when they meet tomorrow.

Had it been approved, it would be brought to an end a saga which has been running since 1998.

A firm called Griffin Bio was given outline planning permission to create a nine-hole golf course off Brokenstone Road, Feniscowles.

A report to council later said the firm dumped around 600,000 tonnes of unchecked landfill on the site.

Blackburn with Darwen Council issued four enforcement notices insisting the waste be removed. If the new planning application, submitted last summer, is approved, some of that waste would be moved.

The new application covers a larger area than the original golf course plan. A farmhouse in the middle of the site would be converted into a clubhouse.

The applicants said that to make the £3million-plus scheme financially viable, and to create the contours for a golf course, 700,000 cubic metres of landfill would need to be transported to the site over a three to five year period.

But if the plan is refused, the council would have the power to force the landowner, previously identified in a council report as Peter Shorrock, the former Blackburn Lions president, to take action.

Alternatively, it could do the work and then bill the landowner.

A report to the planning and highways committee states that "the removal of the unauthorised material and the fact that a new pay and play golf course would be available for the benefit of residents and visitors to the borough are a positive benefit of the proposals.

"It is considered they do not outweigh the harm that will result."