MULTI-MILLION pound plans to transform the site of a former paper mill into an eco-friendly housing estate have been unveiled.

Two years after the Creams Mill, Little Lever, scheme was first mooted, Bolton-based Westgate Estates has submitted plans to Bolton Council.

As well as what they hope will be the greenest housing estate in the borough, developers also want to re-open a half-mile section of the Bolton-Rochdale canal, create three acres of allotments — or community growing schemes. This will be offered to homeowners on the estate and a section of woodland will be turned over to Preston-based Myerscough College which will maintain public walkways and use the forest as an educational base.

The site was formerly a magnet for arsonists and vandals.

Lyndon Monks, director of Westgate Estates, said: “The site is second-to-none. We have had a good response from the local people we have spoken to and this will be something unique for Bolton.

“I am not interested in building just a box estate and while we are not going to say it is carbon-neutral we certainly think it will be the greenest estate in Bolton.

“The section of the canal for a quarter of a mile east of Mytham Road is unused at present, but we have been in talks with the Canal Society and we are happy to remove the building which is over that particular section and hand it back over so it can be reconnected.”

The scheme, on the 28-acre site, comprises of 96 residential “units” with 24 apartments and 72 townhouses, detached and semi-detached properties.

The apartment block will have roof gardens, Mr Monks said, and public footpaths will be opened through the site to allow people to enjoy the canal and the woodland.

Mr Monks added: “The Canal Society are very excited by these plans and we also have the British Woodland Trust on board.”

It is hoped that electricity for the scheme will be produced by a hydro-generator using water from the adjacent River Irwell while other green features include solar panels, turf roofs and woodburners in each of the properties.Production ceased at the mill site in 2004 and the buildings quickly became the target of arson attacks, fly-tipping and vandalism.

Bosses at Mergon Properties — which owns Westgate Estates — bought the mill formerly owned by Mondi Paper UK for more than £1million in October 2007.

John Fletcher, chairman of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Society, said he would be delighted to see the canal redeveloped and retained.

He added: “We are very pleased with the talks that are ongoing about the improvement of that section of the canal, which will hopefully be restored and retained.

“But I think it will be beyond our means as a society to take on a strip of land that is in an area of difficult geology.”