PLANS to convert a historic hall and its land near Blackburn into a golf course and club house are to go to a public inquiry.

Chorley-based building company Reilly Developments is bidding to create nine new homes with garages and redevelop the dilapidated Woodfold Hall in Mellor into a clubhouse and build an 18-hole golf course on the nearby parkland.

The planning application was approved by Ribble Valley Council's planning committee but because they included new buildings on an area of green belt land, the scheme has been called in by government inspectors.

Richard Sherras, chairman of the planning committee, said the council supported the development and there had been little objection from local people.

He said: "It's a nice historic building and it would be good to see it put back and use made of the park land too. Although my views don't reflect the whole of the committee, this development is something we would welcome."

He said: "The main objection was about access from Further Lane and people were concerned it would generate traffic along there." However, he said this was not the reason the scheme had been called in by government inspectors.

He said: "As a planning committee there is not much we can do about it now. It's out of our hands."

The hall, which has not been lived in for more than 50 years and has fallen into disrepair, was built by Henry Sudell, a prosperous merchant and Blackburn's largest employer of hand-loom weavers.

In 1877 the hall was bought by Daniel Thwaites whose daughter, Elma, later inherited the hall. Her son, Lord Alvingham, took over the hall after her death, but in 1949 its treasures were sold off and the hall slowly degenerated into a ruin and began to succumb to dry rot.

Reilly Developments is a subsidiary of John Reilly Civil Engineering Ltd in Hampshire, and has not released details of the cost of the plans, only saying the cost of the scheme will run into millions. It is the biggest project the firm has ever undertaken and past work includes building new houses in Wiswell and Bolton-by-Bowland and several barn conversions.

The public inquiry will take place at Council Chambers in Clitheroe on Tuesday April 24.