A SECOND inquiry into massive housing plans for Westhoughton will be held next week.

Bellway Homes’ proposal to build 129 homes on greenfield land in Bowlands Hey was unanimously rejected by councillors earlier this year.

The developer has now appealed the decision and a three-day hearing is scheduled to start at Bolton Town Hall next Wednesday.

This week, the council is trying to stop Persimmon from building 300 new homes near the Chequerbent Roundabout in a separate town hall inquiry.

At a planning committee meeting in January, Bellway said they had owned the site for 10 years and that it had been identified for development in the draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.

Councillors accused the developer of land-banking and said that Westhoughton does not have the necessary infrastructure to cater for this number of extra homes.