A PROPOSAL to build around 300 homes in Longridge has moved a step closer.

The plan, being drawn up by applicants JWPC, could see the new housing estate joined by a neighbourhood centre in land south of Preston Road.

The organisation submitted a screening opinion, a process of determining whether an environmental-impact assessment is required as part of a planning application, at the start of the year.

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Ribble Valley Borough Council has now decided that an assessment is not necessary, clearing the way for a formal application to be submitted in the coming months. The decision comes days after a plan to construct 363 homes in the town, forcing the relocation of the cricket club, was approved.

Applicant BDW Trading Ltd has been given permission to start the project which also includes a new primary school, a new cricket ground and a pavilion. The cricket club is expected to be built on the north-east of the site in Chipping Lane.

Before a decision was made by the council, 82 letters of objection and three in support were sent to planning officers.

The objections raised by nearby residents included concerns that the school might never be built, the loss of the cricket pitch and the number of houses.

Writing to the applicant, the council’s head of planning services, John Macholc, said: “The core strategy identifies Longridge as one of three principal settlements to accommodate additional housing development in the borough, which will necessitate the release of greenfield land.

“Having regard to the size of the development, in cumulation with other developments, is not likely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue of factors such as congestion on local roads.

“On the basis of the supporting documents, I am satisfied that measures can be put in place to mitigate any harm in relation to ecology.

“The local planning authority is of the opinion that the proposed development is unlikely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue of its nature, size and location. As such, I do not consider the development to require a full environmental-impact assessment.”