WORK on the first houses at the £200 million Horwich Loco Works development is scheduled to begin later this year.

The Bluemantle Group, which is overseeing the Rivington Chase development off Chorley New Road, published a phasing schedule detailing when it hopes to have various phases of the 1,700-home regeneration complete.

The paper, prepared by Cass Associates, stated that Bluemantle intends to begin building the first 100 homes “in late 2017”.

It said: “This is an evolving phasing strategy that reflects the current position and will develop further as the scheme progresses and in response to any other factors which may give rise for the need for the strategy to be updated in response.

“Following the approval of the outline planning application and subsequent section 106 agreement our client has been undertaking ongoing discussions with various land owners to develop a strategy for delivery of the site.

“It is the intention for Bluemantle to lead the co-ordination and submission of discharge of condition planning applications to satisfy the ‘pre commencement’ planning requirements of the outline permission.

“This will then allow for a co-ordinated approach to be adopted with regards to the development and submission of reserved matters applications.”

Outline planning permission for the development was awarded in 2015 to Horwich Vision, a conglomeration of Bluemantle and Orbit Developments, which has since disbanded, leaving Bluemantle heading the scheme.

As part of the permission, Bolton Council ordered that specific planning applications for the varying parts of the site were not to be submitted until an overall masterplan was produced.

The release of the phasing strategy means that this condition can be discharged and proposals for the separate cluster of buildings can be submitted. The document pointed out that the scheduling was the current intended dates and could be subject to change.

But community group Horwich First had some concerns about some of the aspects of the plan.

A statement from the group said: “Disappointing to see the main entrance to the Loco Works Development will be on Chorley New Road and not the new access road via Aspinall Way on to Middlebrook as we were originally promised.

“This will result in all the contractors, businesses and the owners of the new houses entering and exiting next to the fire station.”

There have also been concerns about the A6 roundabout near the motorway, which would be upgraded after around 1,400 homes have been built.