A FRESH bid has been launched to open an Ofsted-registered nursery for a maximum of 80 children in Sabden.

Applicant Andrew Collinson, of Wesley Street, has submitted a change of use application to Ribble Valley Borough Council for Falcon House.

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The Whalley Road premises formally houses offices and was the subject of a rejected bid earlier this year.

The council, which threw out the original plan in October, said that further information was required that the transport and highways impacts would not cause detriment to highway and pedestrian safety.

John Macholc, the council’s head of planning services, added that Mr Collinson had provided insufficient information to demonstrate that the risks of contamination would be appropriately addressed.

At the time Sabden Parish Council was in favour of the application which made provision for 80 children.

In a letter to the council, a spokesman for Trevor Hobday Associates, which is acting as the agent for the proposal, said that a maximum of 12 members of staff would be on site at any one time.

If approved in the New Year the nursery would be open from 7am to 6pm from Monday to Saturday.

A spokesman for the applicant said: “The proposal is a much-needed facility in Sabden, where extensive residential has taken place over recent years.

“There is no current similar facility in the locality and the proposal is supported by the local community.

“The new plan incorporates additional information that now addresses the issues raised by the planning authority in its refusal notice.

“Children may only attend the nursery for several hours a day and these will be at different times of the day as well.

“It is extremely unlikely that there will be excessive queuing of vehicles as traffic generation will be spread over the day and not concentrated into short periods of time.”

Coun Richard Newmark said: “I’m very much in favour of this plan.”

“There is a clear need in the village for a new nursery as there are a lot of family-designed houses being built or are going to be built in Sabden.

“There will be an influx of children coming into the village and we need to cater for them.

“I hope that the council passes this application this time around as it will be positive for Sabden.”