RESIDENTS on a Baxenden street said they were ‘cracking open the Champagne’ after plans to build homes on the site of a scrap yard were given the go-ahead.

The vehicle scrap yard on Alliance Street will make way for 12 semi-detached homes.

Building will start just yards away from a home where a young family was forced to flee when logs stored next to a wood-burning stove caught fire while they were asleep in June.

Matthew Cornthwaite led his family to safety that night. He said: “We are cracking open the Champagne. You get a lot of chavs and people you don’t know coming down the street.

“If houses were there you would know the people com-ing and going.”

No residents from Alliance Street objected to the plans with many believing homes would be more compatible to the neighbourhood than the current scrap yard.

Mr Cornthwaite said: “It’s a good thing for the area because a nice housing estate looks better than a scrap yard.”

However, some of the area is considered to be at ‘high risk’ of flooding.

The Environment Agency initially objected to the plans but backed down after receiving more information, Rishton councillor and chairman of the planning committee Harry Grayson said.

Mr Cornthwaite added: “The street has flooded before but it has never reached the houses.”

The 2.2 acre site will see the majority of properties located on the east. A hammer head turning area will be created to the north where six homes will be built. The majority of the western edge will be left undeveloped.