A 26-HOME estate is to be built on the site of a former reservoir.

JPS Property won approval from Bolton Council yesterday to develop the old Temple Road reservoir, in Smithills.

The reservoir was drained in 2011 and permission was previously given for 30 homes at the site in September, 2013, but that proposed development did not go ahead and the approval lapsed.

Residents and Cllr Bilkis Ismail argued that wildlife had returned to the area in recent years and should be protected, but planning committee members agreed that the principle of housing development on the site had already been agreed.

Kirsty Hopcroft, representing the developer, said that the intention is to sell the land to a housebuilder and that firms are already ‘chomping at the bit’ to buy it.

Local resident Wendy Hesmondhalgh complained that, since the nearby development at Smithills Glade was completed, there have been reports of flooding in the area.

She added that the reservoir had been ‘an area of natural beauty for generations’.

Cllr Debbie Newall voted for approval, but added that areas like this should not always be sacrificed in order to protect green belt elsewhere.

She said: “People in urban areas deserve green spaces just as much as those on the edge of the borough.”

Cllr Hanif Darvesh, whose Crompton ward the reservoir falls within, had moved to refuse the application and said he would prefer a project with fewer properties.

However, Cllr Nick Peel said that there was ‘no real reason’ not to approve this plan.

He added that the chance of flooding in the area was considered to be one in every 1,000 years.