PLANNING officers will decide whether plans for five new commercial units in Kearsley should be approved.

The plans are for the erection of commercial units, together with perimeter fencing and alterations to vehicular access.

According to the proposals, the units would be built in Mather Street, in a site being referred as Bolton South Business Park.

Currently, the only unit at the site belongs Copy Print Services - who own the surrounding land and have submitted the planning application.

Farnworth and Kearsley First councillor Cllr Julie Pattison said she first became aware of the plans when somebody who lives on the street expressed their worries.

She said: "A man who basically lives back to back with the site said he was the only person he'd spoken to on his street who'd actually received notification about it.

"As you can imagine, people are not very happy about it at the moment. They don't think it's in keeping with the area and that area is plighted with issues anyway so having something like that could make things worse."

Some local residents have also voiced their concerns online about the plans.

Lisa Hadfield wrote on Facebook: “Traffic is already horrific on this estate without adding to it.”

While Kim Ditchfield-Ogle added: “It’s awful, going to be such an impact. Not in line with a residential area."

Planning agent Walker Design reference the 'Farnworth Masterplan' in its design and access statement, saying that the site is not included in the plans and therefore alternative uses can be implemented.

It reads: "The site is undesignated within the local development plan and therefore alternative uses could be utilised on site. The properties have a good design and are in keeping and sympathetic with the surrounding area.The use proposed on site is the same as the existing and can therefore see no reason why the scheme should not be approved.

Dynamic Transport Planning also wrote a report about potential transport issues and concluded: "There are no outstanding reasons why the proposed redevelopment of the site should not be granted planning permission on highways grounds."