PLANS to transform a controversial Colne hotel into homes look set to be thrown out.

Over the past few months the owner of the Hendly Hotel, Queen Street, has been at loggerheads with the council, even claiming at one point that the authority was trying to run him out of town.

Bernard Collins has been ordered to carry out £20,000 of fire safety work and was last week fined for three breaches of noise abatements.

But despite the troubles, council officers have recommended that councillors refuse the plans which could see the site turned in to homes.

Mr Collins wants to sell the land to Nelson-based Waterfords Ltd, who would demolish the hotel and replace it with housing.

The development would see a terrace of seven two-storey houses fronting Brown Street West and two three-storey blocks of apartments looking on to Queen Street and Princess Street.

However, despite the hotel being on Pendle Council's list of problem sites for several months, members are being advised to throw out the plans because they do not meet the borough's planning needs.

Paul Whittingham, planning officer at the council, has recommended the scheme be turned down because there was no need for housing on the site and as the artificial stone earmarked for the homes would not compliment existing stone buildings.

Mr Collins, 60, who intends to sell the site he has owned for 17 years for £440,000, today said: "It's strange, we have been fighting this council for 17 years and are frequently mentioned at the Colne committee in a negative manner."