A DATE has been announced for a re-arranged meeting to discuss controversial plans that could see 1700 homes built on the Horwich Loco Works site.

Last week plans for the new “Rivington Chase” community were raised at a meeting of Horwich Town Council but the discussion became chaotic with scores of residents unable to air their views in the allotted time.

The council then voted to arrange a separate public meeting to deal solely with the loco works application, away from the constraints of a planning meeting.

This will now be held on Monday March 17 at the Horwich RMI club in Chorley New Road and will begin at 6pm.

Horwich Vision, the developers behind the plans will be in attendance and will give a presentation at 7pm.

At the previous town council meeting, the majority of resident complaints revolved around the issue of traffic and questions were raised about how Horwich’s road network will cope with a huge influx of vehicles.

The developers made some attempts to discuss the concerns of residents but were heckled and laughed off by the assembled crowd on several occasions.

Horwich Town Councillor Joyce Kellett, who has helped to arrange the meeting said: “Although the developers have previously given a presentation to Horwich Town Council and held an open day — the public feel they have not been properly consulted.

“We will therefore hold the public meeting on March 17 which will include a presentation from the developers on all aspects of the development.

“Then councillors will open the debate and residents will be able to talk about their concerns — but points won’t be made directly to the developers because we don’t want a repeat of the last meeting.”

Cllr Kellett said that any points raised by residents will taken forward by councillors to be discussed and debated at the next meeting of Horwich Town Council on March 20, where the council will make their recommendation on whether the £260 million development should be approved or rejected by Bolton Council’s planning department.