A furious row over housing targets broke out at a Blackburn with Darwen full council meeting as Tory councillors accused Labour town hall bosses of pursuing a 'build, build, build' policy.

Conservative regeneration spokesman Cllr Paul Marrow said the new homes lacked the roads, schools and doctor's surgeries needed to support them.

And he highlighted that there were no plans to build near borough leader Cllr Phil Riley's home.

Lancashire Telegraph: Cllr Paul MorrowCllr Paul Morrow

The dispute at Thursday night's meeting came as it passed the council's Local Plan 2021 to 2037 which would see thousands of new homes built starting with 3,335 in the next five years.

Cllr Riley hit back, saying: "We are not ashamed of helping the borough and the residents of the borough to improve their lives."

Cllr Marrow said: "Again it is just 'build, build, build' with no infrastructure.

"We have built well beyond what was required of us from the government.

"The council has decided to build these houses.

"When you look through this you notice that the land to the rear of Cllr Riley's house is being kept as green space.

"He's not building at the back of his house".

His Tory colleague Cllr Mark Russell said: "The council over the next five years intends to build four times more homes than the government housing targets, which in my opinion is unjustifiable."

Fellow Conservative Cllr Denise Gee said: "What you need with build, build, build is infrastructure, doctors, hospitals, schools road networks."

Cllr Riley said: "It is good of Cllr Marrow to study the land behind my house. If he studied it properly he'd find that it is landlocked and there is a quarry in the middle of it. There has never been any interest in that land at all from any developer. It hasn't required any intervention by me. Nobody wants it.

Lancashire Telegraph: Cllr Phil RileyCllr Phil Riley

"We have created a buoyant housing market in this town and we are not ashamed of that. It's good news that people in this borough are getting the opportunity to better themselves by moving into some of the new properties that have been built.

"We have a lot of terraced houses. Amongst the reasons that Blackburn with Darwen was affected by Covid as it was overcrowding with large families living in smaller houses. It is good that we are offering those people opportunities with newer houses. They are bigger, larger and that is why they are selling.

"You are anti-growth. You have opposed everything that we have done to improve the quality of life of people in Blackburn with Darwen. The borough needs new housing."

Darwen East Liberal Democrat Cllr Paul Browne said: "We are soon going to have no greenery in the borough whatsoever. It's going to be all concrete."