UP to a million tonnes of landfill could be dumped on green belt land if plans for Blackburn's first pay-and-play golf course get the go-ahead.

The operator behind the scheme -- which is being fiercely opposed by residents -- plans to make £3.5million from taking between 700,000 and one million tonnes of building rubble to help create the landscape for a £5million, 28-acre golf course.

But first, it is expected that council bosses will insist they remove around five per cent of the rubbish dumped on the site illegally by an unconnected firm.

The planning application, submitted last week by Blackburn Golf Developments, based in Hove, Sussex, could end a four-year legal wrangle involving the previous golf developer Griffin Bio, which also wanted to create a golf course in Brokenstones Road, near Feniscowles, Blackburn.

Griffin Bio received planning permission to develop a golf course on part of the site in 1998 but did not have permission to drop landfill there. But according to the new planning application, the firm dumped around 600,000 tonnes of unchecked landfill on the site.

Blackburn with Darwen Council issued four enforcement notices against the firm to make the firm remove tyres and other unsuitable material. Other notices related to unauthorised access points.

The new application, if granted, would carry conditions insisting on removal of any unsuitable material.

An Environment Agency spokesman said today: "About five per cent of the material dumped on the site could pollute watercourses as it breaks down. This includes dumped paperwork and textiles in hot spots on the site, while ground-down plasterboard is distributed across the site." Blackburn Golf Developments says that though the site is within green belt, its ultimate use as a golf course would not have a detrimental impact on the area.

It also states: "All materials brought to the site would be inert and CCTV would be used to monitor what arrived. Any contractor bringing unsuitable material on to the site would have their contract terminated immediately."

And the firm warned that the only way it could afford the cost of the development was to infill the site. The firm has offered to pay a 'bond' to the council which the authority can keep if the golf course does not become reality.

Residents in Livesey, Pleasington and Feniscowles, have started a petition against the plan. Brian Duckworth, of Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn, said: "How will the council make sure this golf course is actually built?"

The Council For the Protection of Rural England is holding a public meeting on September 2 at Feniscowles County Primary School.

David Goss, chairman of the organisation's Blackburn with Darwen group said: "The countryside between Livesey and Tockholes will be drastically altered forever."

Blackburn with Darwen Council spokesman Adam Scotty said: "The council is consulting the public and other agencies.

"We understand the concerns of local people and these will be considered as part of the process of determining the application. "

The land is owned by former Blackburn Lions president Peter Shorrock, who is named in the planning application as having agreed to hand over the land if permission is granted.