OBJECTORS reacted with anger after a controversial planning application — due to be decided today — was pulled from a committee agenda at the last minute.

Opposition councillors said ‘serious questions’ needed to be asked about the decision to withdraw an application regarding a community centre in St Paul’s Mill in Barbara Street, Daubhill, which has received more than 400 complaints from local residents and a nearby Mosque.

The plans, from developer Gulam Ali Jiva, were first brought before the planning committee last November and have been deferred twice since.

Residents are frustrated because the community centre is already up and running and seeking retrospective approval — with people angry at the influx of parked cars in the area.

The council’s highways department are also unhappy with the proposals but the planning department were recommending that they were passed.

Hundreds of objectors were expected to turn up to hear the application be discussed and debated at today’s planning committee in the presence of members of the Local Government Association, who will be carrying out an independent inquiry into the council’s planning processes in the coming weeks.

An email from the council’s assistant director Phil Green to all elected members said the withdrawal was based on ‘new information’.

The email states: “The reason for the deferral of the application is because we have received new information in the shape of a response from one of the consultees, Environmental Health, with regard to (noise) disturbance from the site.

“Environmental Health wish to make further investigations which could have a material bearing on the decision and as such in order for these investigations to take place and the results to be considered, the decision was taken in consultation with the Vice Chair of Planning Committee to defer the application.”

Bolton’s Conservative leader, Cllr David Greenhalgh said the timing of the withdrawal needed justifying.

He said: “There are definitely questions to be asked after this application was removed from the agenda at the last minute about the motive behind this decision.

“The timing of this, with the Local Government Association due to observe today’s meeting and the upcoming Rumworth by-election in the area also raises some serious questions and we will certainly be raising this with the director and seeking proper justification of why this decision was made and at what level.”

His comments were echoed by UKIP chairman Cllr Paul Richardson, who said: “It is hardly surprising that the last thing the Labour Group would want is for this application to be argued out at committee in front of members of the LGA Inquiry panel.

“The excuse for deferment is pathetic.

“Planners have had over 10 months to get Environmental Health to do a noise survey.

“In my view the handling of this has been a disgrace and brings the planning process and the Council into disrepute.”

The Bolton News has also seen an email from the group running the nearby Masjid e Ghosie Mosque — one of the chief objectors to the plan — which says the decision to delay again shows ‘blatant disregard’ for those planning to attend today’s meeting.

Another email states that the mosque is planning to make a formal complaint against council officers for the manner in which this application has been handled. It states: “We have made it clear to the applicant that we will be aggressively and forcefully pursuing objections and seeking a final decision at this Thursday’s planning committee meeting and that position remains unchanged.”

In his planning application, the developer states: “All aspects related to the local context have been taken into consideration and minimum disruption to local residents is pivotal in this scheme.”