A SCHEME to turn part of a mill in the middle of houses into a haulage base has been backed by a council planning officer.

Councillors are being recommended to approve a planning application by D C International to turn part of Barnfield Business Centre in Brunswick Street, Nelson, into a haulier's garage.

Local residents have sent 14 letters objecting to the move to Pendle Council and are expected to voice their concerns when the matter is discussed at Nelson Town Hall on Monday.

A previous move to use some of the business units as a haulage base was turned down by councillors last November after lobbying by local people, who claim Brunswick Street is already too busy and extra traffic would be dangerous and noisy.

But a planning officer's report on the latest scheme said: "While I understand the concern of local residents about traffic, in my view a proposal of the scale and details of the operation described in the present application would not make any significant difference to the traffic situation and would probably have less effect than other possible lawful uses of the premises."

The report said the haulage operator runs two lorries which would be away on business for days or weeks at a time and might only return to base at holiday time or once every few weeks for servicing and maintenance.

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