A DEVELOPER could win approval to build 27 new homes on the site of a former reservoir.

Bolton Council’s planning committee will decide today if Eccleston Homes’ plans for the old Temple Road reservoir can go ahead.

The Smithills site was first drained in 2011 and has been earmarked for housing for some time.

Eccleston Homes purchased the land after town hall bosses approved the principle of development on the site last year.

A council planning office report has concluded that the proposal would ‘assist in meeting the council’s strategic objectives for housing and would involve replacement tree planting and ecological enhancement of the reservoir’.