A CONTROVERSIAL planning application for a village which is already being heavily developed is set to get the green light.

Members of Rossendale engineering and planning sub-committee will tomorrow discuss an outline plan to build 42 homes on land at Irwell Springs, off Heald Lane, Weir, and officers are recommending it be approved. A public meeting in January, at Central Methodist Church, Bacup, attracted 100 concerned villagers.

The River Irwell runs through the site and the applicant proposed to reroute the river and build two bridges over it.

Councillors will be told one of the three reservoirs, thought to be more than 200 years old, will be filled in and the remaining two reduced in depth around the edges.

Fifty letters of objection have been received from local residents and one from the Council for the Protection of Rural England.

Their objections include traffic, the lack of community facilities for a village with enough housing, loss of trees and the loss of a reservoir and wildlife habitat.

The site is designated for housing and the applicant's traffic consultant has estimated there would be up to 36 vehicles in the morning and afternoon at peak times.

Councillors will be told the reservoir which is to be filled in has near vertical sides and presently represents a public safety hazard. It is of little ecological value because of its form and depth.