THE Secretary of state for Transport will have to decide if proposed alterations to the road layout of a new Hindley Green housing development can go ahead.

The council wants a minor adjustment to the previously approved access point to the proposed housing site, covering land at Belvedere Farm, Carr Common Road, Hindley Green.

A small area of land on the western side of Coupland Road that was intended to form part of the access is no longer available so an additional small part of Tremco's site on the eastern side has been included to ensure there is adequate access to the site.

But not everyone in the community approves of the new application. WASP (Wildlife and Social Preservation - On the Green) chairman John Vickers said the application for the road alteration should have been submitted as a single application with the housing estate.

He claimed: "The council has been trying to gain consent in a confusing, misleading and piecemeal fashion for a huge housing estate and an industrial link road. This should have been submitted as a single application, not one in 1999 and another 12 months later, when people might not make the connection."

Mr Vickers said WASP had complained to the council after it had stated in its application that alterations to the road layout were not part of a larger scheme. The council has since filled in a new set of application forms with amended details saying the application alterations to the road layout was part of a larger scheme.

Under new procedures, because the application will facilitate the development of a larger parcel of land, the application must now be referred to Secretary of State John Prescott.

"It seems to be up to us to spot the mistakes the council makes," said Mr Vickers.

"Its not in the public interest to have the new road. They will just dump heavy traffic on the road. Its just a cheap way for the council to get a new road. I hope the Secretary of State does not allow the proposal to go ahead. There is no more green left on Hindley Green.

"The road won't solve any problems. It could lead to the expansion of the Swan Lane Industrial Estate."

John Sloane, director of planning and development at the council said the amendments made to the planning applications after WASP's objections were no longer an issue as it had been dealt with. He added that the new road should reduce traffic.

"The whole point of the new road is to try to avoid heavy industrial traffic," he said. "At the moment there is only one way out of Swan Lane. A new road will mean less traffic.

"Only this application to modify the road has been referred to the Secretary of State. Everything else has got planning permission."