JUBILANT residents clapped and cheered as plans to build a crematorium in Radcliffe bit the dust.

Councillors voted against planning officers' recommendations to conditionally approve the £1.5 million development in Cemetery Road and sided with the 20-plus objectors present at last week's planning control sub committee meeting.

Radcliffe councillor and committee member, Barrie Briggs described the application as "the most contentious in Radcliffe for a long time".

Mr Philip Holt, who represented the residents at Thursday's (Sept 6) committee, said: "It is a victory for common sense."

Plans to site the facility date back to March 1997 when outline planning permission was granted. In March 1999 Bury Council awarded the applicants, global funeral firm Service Corporation International (SCI), a 125-year-lease in September 1999 after it submitted the most competitive bid. But the majority of councillors, eight to five, refused to grant full planning permission agreeing with objectors that circumstances had changed during the last five years.

Radcliffe North councillor Tim Chamberlain, who spoke out on behalf the residents said: "A lot has changed since outline planning permission was granted. At first the development would mean four to five cars a day now it is to maximise the number of cremations. It was assumed that the facility would be environmentally friendly but since then there has been concern about the incineration of organic waste.

"We also did not have Agenda 21 which seeks to reduce development on Green Belt land."

Residents objected to the plans on grounds of traffic, access, the effect on the environment, and the general inappropriateness of having a crematorium so close to a residential area.

They said processions of funeral corteges along Greenbank Road would also have a detrimental effect on local housing, trees and wildlife as well as causing emotional distress to those living near by

Panel member Coun Denise Bigg, said: "I appreciate there is a need for a crematorium in the metropolitan borough of Bury. However looking at the proposed site we need to take on board the traffic concerns and there has been no updated traffic impact survey. There will be traffic from all over borough quadrupling the number of cars in that area raising concerns about safety."

Mr Holt, who lives on Greenbank Road, added: "The five years of campaigning had been worth it. I am pleased that the councillors understood the depth of feeling about this application."