PROPOSALS for up to 95 homes in Green Belt moorland are to be debated by councillors. Blackburn with Darwen Council s Planning Committee is recommended to approve the scheme on Waterside Park near Eccleshill Village despite the presence of bats, barn owls, otters and common toads on the 12-acre site. The scheme proposed by furniture firm GFW Ltd would involve the demolition of their current distribution centre and the nearby Lower Grimshaw Farm. GFW would relocate elsewhere. Planning officers recommend the meeting on Thursday attach 30 conditions to any approval including protecting the rare species. They say that because the site, off Johnson Road, is already industrially developed the new housing estate can go ahead despite being in the protected Green Belt.
A SECOND bid to turn a former pub into a mosque and Islamic education centre will be debated by councillors on Thursday. A previous attempt to turn the shell of the Little Harwood Inn in Whalley Old Road, Blackburn, into a place of Muslim worship and madrassah was abandoned in March after a 23-signature petition from 23 nearby residents opposing the scheme. But now a revised proposal from Blackburn-based Islamic organisation Dawat-e-Islami will be considered by councillors. Blackburn with Darwen Council Planning Committee has been recommended by officers to approve the scheme despite seven objections. A two storey dilapidated red brick barn in its rear yard would be demolished if planning permission is granted.
Blackburn s historic town hall set for new upgrade | Lancashire Telegraph lancashiretelegraph.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lancashiretelegraph.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The building has already seen its third and fourth floors internally refurbished. Now councillors have been asked to approve and upgrade of the offices on the first and second storeys of Blackburn Town Hall. It is is a Grade II listed building which was built in 1852 by James Patterson. It is a large rectangular stone building with a rusticated ground floor, modillion eaves cornice over the first floor, and a pierced balustrade above the attic storey. The building has stone quoins, round-arched Italianate windows, and Corinthian columns to the front at first floor. On Thursday Blackburn with Darwen Council s Planning Committee has been recommended to approve the modernisation.
An image of how the new skatepark and sports village will look. THE transformation of a skatepark into an Olympic-level sports village has been approved by unanimously councillors. The redevelopment of Darwen’s Junction 4 Skatepark with top-class training facilities for skateboarders and BMX riders was praised as wonderful and terrific . The new urban sports village will include a street skate plaza, dirt jump and pump track, and a BMX course. Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Planning Committee give it the green light on Thursday night despite two objections from nearby residents It is one of three early projects which secured a share of a £750,000 government grant from the Darwen Town Deal.