A WATERSIDE housing estate could be built along a picturesque stretch of Leeds and Liverpool canal under plans unveiled today.

Housing developer Dorbcrest Homes Ltd has applied to Blackburn with Darwen Council for permission to build 34 detached houses on land off Livesey Branch Road, in Fensicowles, Blackburn.

The application has been made by paper company Sappi Europe, for land formerly used as an oil storage depot and warehousing.

Sappi have a mill on the opposite bank of the canal and a £40 million power station - the biggest of its kind in the country - alongside it provides electricity for homes and businesses throughout the North West.

If planning permission is given, the site would be cleared to make way for the development, a mixture of three and four-bedroomed houses.

Access on to the site would be via Livesey Branch Road, which has already been altered to cope with increased traffic from a larger Barratt Homes development on the other side of Livesey Branch Road.

Although the site of the development is rundown at the moment, it is set along an attractive stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool canal, which is popular with walkers and boaters travelling to and from Withnell.