PEOPLE living close to a former industrial site earmarked for a housing estate today said the development will blight the neighbourhood.

Residents of Park View, Padiham, said development on the former light engineering works site would create traffic chaos.

They say builders will have use the narrow street to get to the site as there is no other access.

They are also concerned there will not be enough room for their cars when wagons turn into the road.

Burnley Council's development committee was told the Highway Authority said any development should include a turning area.

The site is next to the River Calder and behind Park View which overlooks the leisure centre, two tennis courts and a bowling green. Residents said that the road is already very busy because of people using these amenities.

Patricia Bleasdale, 57, of Park View, said that she had nothing against the houses but she was not happy about the upset caused by building work.

She said: "There is only one access and I'm afraid wagons will damage all our cars.

"The road is really narrow and with the bowling green and the tennis courts there is not enough room to park at the best of times."

Stuart Haigh, 38, of Park View, said: "They want to be doing something with the old cinema behind us before anything else, it's a real eyesore."

Scott Knowles, 22, lives with his girlfriend Lisa in Park View, he said: "I moved in two weeks ago, it's a bit of a shock. I had all the searches done by my solicitor and they never said anything about this, I'll have to give them a ring."

Susan Wilkinson, 29, of Park View, said: "We get a lot of wagons coming down here to the rubbish tip behind the leisure centre, when they come down all the house vibrates.

"We found a lot of cracks on the inside of the house so we got a surveyor out last month to look at them, but he said the house was 90-years-old and they may not have been made by the traffic."

A spokesman for land owners Magenta Homes, of Great Harwood, said: "We have outline planning permission for residential homes. We don't have any more details because we will be selling it."

Councillors were told residents' objections were not reasons to turn down the application and it was approved unanimously.