A HOLIDAY cottage firm has announced exciting expansion plans.

Rossendale Holiday Cottages, in Dean Lane, Water, wants to build a new guest house which would house eight guest rooms.

Complete with eight double rooms, the facility would also include a lounge, restaurant, spa and cinema room.

Also included in the plan is a landscaping, car parking and an access road.

The facility would see a maximum of 16 more people use the site, which is based in the heart of the beautiful Rossendale Valley.

In planning documents on behalf of Rossendale Holidays, Richard Gee, director of planning consultants Roman Summer Associates Ltd, said: "To my mind, this is a high quality, carefully crafted, sensitive development proposition.

"It will complement the tourist accommodation that already occupies the site.

"It will serve to attract more tourists and their spending to Rossendale."

Currently, there are six cottages on the site that can sleep four to five people each on a self-catering basis.

There are also two glamping pods, with the firm also gaining planning consent for a further four pods located a short distance from the main cottages.

In total, 34 people can stay at the site at present.

Allowing for the consented two additional glamping pods would mean potentially a further eight people on the site taking its capacity to 42 visitors.

Mr Gee said: "The new proposal is to retain all of the above and develop a low impact rural retreat to provide additional guest accommodation on a bed and breakfast basis.

"The new building will be located to the north of the two existing glamping pods, and accessed via the same access road that will be extended north.

"It is hardly surprising or contentious that the owner wishes to establish a rural holiday retreat in a location that already provides tourist accommodation facilities and falls outside the settlement boundaries and in the open countryside.

"It is essential to provide accommodation aimed at rurally-based tourists within the rural area.

"Locating the same accommodation in a more urban setting would clearly not attract those who this proposal seeks to cater for."