COUNCILLORS will next week take a second look at a controversial housing development where planning permission was revoked just hours after they granted it.

Last month they approved the scheme for 165 houses south of Whalley Old Road in Sunny Bower, Blackburn, after town hall officers and Labour councillors dismissed complaints by residents' spokesman Stephen Atherton and Conservative members they should have been provided with a special report on mineral deposits below the land.

The following day the decision was suspended after legal checks confirmed the document was required.

Now the Mineral Resources Assessment has been compiled and will be submitted with the application for Blackburn with Darwen Council Planning Committee to consider a second time on Thursday.

The borough owns half the site and the application is strongly opposed by nearby residents who have formed the Sunny Bower Community Group.

The MRA says: "Evidence from historical mapping shows that sandstone has previously been extracted at the application site within an approximate area of 2.33 hectares, just under 30 per cent of the proposed development site.

"There is no potential value in extracting the minerals, the extent and nature of which would not be commercially viable. There is no prospect of minerals ever being worked in the future on the application site."

Therefore the report by planning officers recommends outline approval of the scheme submitted by Cass Associates of Liverpool.

The residents group object on grounds including the scheme's impact on the local environment and wildlife, traffic, road safety, increased pollution, and fears local schools and NHS provision will be inadequate.

Cllr Derek Hardman, who led the Tory objections last month, said: "I am amazed they have put together this report so quickly when last month they did not even know about it.

"I shall be asking probing questions at the committee about this report and all the other issues surrounding the application including Blackburn Chemicals being next to it.

"I shall also be asking about whether applications approved off Livesey Branch Road and Gib Lane without an MRA were granted permission illegally."

Sunny Bower Community Group chairman Iain Sykes said: “The MRA would not have been carried out if we had not pointed out at the meeting that it was needed.The council were completely lost at the meeting and we have to wonder what other holes there are in the planning committee's expertise.

"We are also very surprised a report of this magnitude has been prepared within such a swift timeframe. Therefore we question the report’s independence.”

Blackburn with Darwen Council growth boss Cllr Phil Riley said: "I hope that we can now consider this application and come to a conclusion."