CONTROVERSIAL plans for a mock Tudor style block of flats and maisonettes in a prestige residential area look set to get the go-ahead, despite a concentrated campaign by protesters.

Blackburn Meins Road Area Residents' Association has hired a team of experts to fight their case against plans for the former Heathfield School site. The residents have even threatened to take Blackburn Council to court if it grants permission. The council's planning and highways committee has twice deferred a decision.

But officers are still recommending councillors to give the green light when the committee meets on Thursday .

Developers Crowther Homes Ltd have amended their original layout after consultation with the council, and are now proposing a two and three storey building of 17 flats and 10 maisonettes with access off Meins Road.

Campaigners say the sloping site is fit only for shallow foundations, and a large building could cause geological problems.

They say trees around the site would suffer, and extra traffic would make the Meins Road/Preston New Road junction even more hazardous.

A report to councillors says the borough solicitor is satisfied the borough can adequately defend its handling of the application.

The council's tree officer is satisfied the development could go ahead without detriment to existing trees which are the subject of tree preservation orders.

The applicants' own report says foundation weights would be "relatively low" and would not penetrate boulder clay layers or expose solid rocks.

In response to worries about traffic, the report says the flats would generate no more traffic than the school did, particularly at problem times.

Residents say the development would be out of keeping, but the report from officers says the area's character has already been eroded with garden areas and new homes, including those at Heathfield Park, Carrs Wood and Meins Croft.

They say the new building would be of a scale "more akin" to the larger properties which previously dominated the area.

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