Estate scheme set to get go-ahead amid fears for village identity

Residents in the Fishmoor area of Blackburn and Guide village are furious at plans to build a housing estate, retail complex and industrial estate.

Manchester-based developer Arrowcroft Northwest - an arm of United Utilities - has put together the scheme which it claims will create up to 1,000 jobs.

But local people claim the move will see Guide village swallowed up by Blackburn and create traffic chaos in the area.

Plans include a hotel, pubs, petrol station, exclusive housing estate and industrial estate on land alongside Fishmoor reservoir.

North West Water owns the empty site and talks have taken place between the developers and Blackburn town hall officials. Around 50 angry residents attended a public meeting after the plan was unveiled and many have written to the council calling for the planning application to be thrown out.

The first phase of the scheme is housing estate of between 100 and 135 properties on an 11-acre site.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has received a dozen letters objecting to the scheme.

One angry resident said: "The residents of Guide village and the surrounding villages have suffered greatly in recent times.

"The noise, dust and mud over recent years have been sadly endured.

"The proposed development would ensure that Guide was no longer a village on the outskirts of Blackburn but an integral part of the town.

"The size of the development would almost certainly create an excess of traffic to surpass previous levels and cause problems for residents, drivers and more importantly the local wildlife."

Lancashire Wildlife Trust is also opposing the scheme saying it would harm wildlife in the area.

But planning officials at Blackburn with Darwen Council are urging councillors to back the scheme when the planning sub-committee meets on Thursday.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.