A MULTI-MILLION pound scheme to build shops and flats in Whitefield town centre has been given the nod of approval.

Private developers Crosby Homes have won "in principle" favour from Bury Council to transform the Brand Centre site, bus station and Elms Street car park.

Phase 1 would provide ground floor shops, including a food store, on land fronting Bury New Road and Stanley Road. Above these outlets would be four or five storeys of contemporary apartments.

Phase 2, comprising the Brand Centre site, would be turned into more traditional housing.

The company's proposals were favoured by councillors at Wednesday's (Sep 3) executive meeting. They rejected an alternative plan by Dransfield Properties of Barnsley to build a 75,000 square foot supermarket covering the whole site.

Town hall bosses and Crosby Homes will now start consultations which will ultimately produce detailed plans. One major task is to agree deals with the various landowners: the council; the company which owns the Brand Centre site; the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive; and the landowners of the Church pub and Roma delicatessen, which would disappear under these proposals.

Councillor Wayne Campbell, executive member for resource, said: "This area of Whitefield is identified in the Unitary Development Plan as a district centre and any redevelopment proposals should be sympathetic to this designation.

"We felt that a single-use large-scale building did not achieve this. However, we did feel that the mixed-use scheme to include a food store better serves the needs of local people and its scale and design should provide a focal point and identity as a town centre."