EIGHTEEN homes could be built on the site of a former mill after new plans were submitted.

The Great Places Housing Group and Bolderstone (Chesterfield) LLP want to build the two and three-bedroom affordable houses on the site of the now demolished Moorgate Mill in Blackburn.

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Plans, submitted to Blackburn with Darwen Council, also include 27 parking spaces for the houses, which would be situated in six groupings in a new street/courtyard built overlooking the Leeds Liverpool Canal near Moorgate Street.

Each home would also have its own enclosed private garden.

The mill was previously the home of Tranmer Textiles Ltd, which ceased trading more than six years ago and the mill was knocked down in 2008.

Access to the site will be via a new road to be constructed off Moorgate Street.

The site has previously been approved for residential developments, with plans for supported living apartment blocks and a number of houses being approved two years ago.

Work on the apartments was completed earlier this year, but the houses were never started.

In documents prepared for the planning submission, a spokesman for OMI Architects said: "It has already been demonstrated that the location of the site is suitable for residential development and that the proposals assist the Borough in regenerating a vacant brownfield site that detracts from the attractiveness of the local area.

"The principle of residential development is already established at the site through the extant residential planning permission.

The spokesman added that residents living nearby have received letters outlining the plans and consultations have taken place between the developers and the council, highways department and Canal and Rivers Trust, with the plans tweaked based on the outcome of the consultations.

Meadowhead ward councillor Carl Nuttall said he welcomed the proposal.

He said: "It is positive to see the site as it is with people moving into the properties that are there now and it would be great to see the site completed."