MORE and more villagers are joining a campaign opposed to a new housing development in Tockholes.

Howard Sidlow, commercial artist, moved into the village just a year ago and was horrified to read of the proposals for a 55-house estate off Long Lane on the draft district plan.

Blackburn Council planners have proposed that the area is allocated for residential use and any potential developer would need to seek planning permission from the authority before any construction work could go ahead.

But villagers living in the area are outraged at the proposals and more than 200 letters of objection have been sent to planners from Tockholes alone with more from people living in Darwen.

Mr Sidlow, 44, moved into Tockholes after searching for a rural home away from Manchester and has since wed Brenda, 40, at the local chapel and his step-daughter attends the local school. Now he has joined the majority of the village in objecting to the scheme which the artist claims would blight Tockholes permanently. He said of Tockholes: "Underneath an outward appearance of sleepy isolation lies a warm and vibrant community which celebrates itself daily in everything it does.

"In these times of urban decay and anonymous forbidding housing estates, Tockholes seems to have clung on to what is simply a better way of living."

Mr Sidlow said the planned housing allocation posed a threat to the village and the chosen way of life to everyone in it."

The artist has written to MP Jack Straw urging him to join the campaign against the plans.

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