A Labour group has been accused of 'betraying' residents desperate for good quality homes by backtracking on its original support for one of East Lancashire biggest ever housing projects.

Hyndburn Council's deputy leader Cllr Peter Britcliffe made the allegations after borough opposition leader Cllr Munsif Dad expressed 'significant concerns about the size and impact of the proposed Huncoat Garden Village development'.

The scheme proposes 1,816 homes on a former colliery site that would cost around £100million.

The council has made a £29.6 million bid to Homes England to allow the project to go ahead.

In May Hyndburn's Cabinet approved progressing with the he masterplan for Huncoat Garden Village which promises to build 1,504 new homes in the next 15 years, with another 312 to be built after 2036.

The project, built around the existing village and the former Huncoat colliery power station site, includes a new village centre with local shops and community buildings, and also proposes a new road linking the village directly to the A56, the expansion of Huncoat Junior School and improvements to the railway station.

Cllr Britcliffe asked Cllr Dad to clarify his party's position on the development at last month's meetings of the borough's Full Council and cabinet.

Now the opposition leader has issued a statement to the Lancashire Telegraph saying: “The Hyndburn Labour Group has significant concerns about the size and impact of the proposed Huncoat Garden Village development on the existing village, doubling it in size with a lack of significant infrastructure funding for schools, roads, public services and with around a £1million to be handed to consultants.

"The group is also concerned with lack of meaningful engagement with residents to address these concerns and this is a crucial factor.

"The Labour group is seeking significant investment for the regeneration of brownfield sites but this development paves over significant amounts of green belt and green field.

"The Labour group believes that the council’s priorities should be key brownfield sites and to regenerate some of the borough's worst terraced housing stock and that Homes England funding would be better spent on brownfield sites and housing on the periphery of our town centres rather then propping up the profits of large national volume house builders."

Cllr Britcliffe said: "Cllr Dad really doesn't get it.

"The reason for the £29.6m bid is to make sure the infrastructure is in place.

"The Labour group is backtracking on its original support for Huncoat Garden Village.

"It is the most important investment in improving housing in Hyndburn for decades.

"Once again Labour policy is in mess and they are betraying hundreds of Hyndburn residents who are desperate of good quality homes.

"In have been asking Cllr Dad for a statement on the Labour group's position on Huncoat Garden Village for weeks and finally we have one.

"Sadly it's not very constructive."

In March, the Homes England's National Investment Project Executive Board approved the Strategic Outline Case (SOC) for Huncoat Garden Village.

The masterplan pledges to protect bio-diversity and be a butterfly haven.