A DEMOLITION firm's bid to build 16 homes on land it currently uses as a haulage yard has been rejected.

Walter Forshaw Ltd applied to build the three-storey homes on the yard in Bolton Road, Westhoughton, which will become redundant when the company moves to larger premises in James Street next year.

The firm received outline planning permission to build homes at the site in January, 2004.

Its detailed plans included 16 three and four-bedroom detached red-brick homes and 22 parking spaces.

But, opposing the scheme, Westhoughton Town Council had argued Bolton Road was already congested at peak times.

Town councillors added that the planned access road was too close to the access for the town's high school and leisure centre.

And they received the support of Bolton Council's planning and highways committee, which unanimously rejected the plans.

Cllr David Wilkinson, a Westhoughton borough and town councillor, told the committee Bolton Road often came to a standstill at peak times.

Cllr Wilkinson said: "I have concerns about 16 homes being squashed into this space."

He also pointed to the concerns of council engineer Ian Calderbank, who questioned how bins would be stored when there was no rear access to the homes.

Cllr Wilkinson warned that the application would be a "gateway" to the development of fields at the back of the site.

"They currently have cows and sheep in them but they will be the next building plot in Westhoughton," he added.

"In effect this is not an application for 16 homes but for more than 200."