RESIDENTS in Horwich are celebrating after hotel owners were told they will have to alter floodlights because they shine into the windows of nearby houses.

Owners of the Travel Inn, next to the Beehive pub in Chorley New Road, were refused an application for the 12 floodlights, which are 20 feet high, which were installed without permission in April.

The council planning committee said the lights, which have since been fitted with cowls to protect residents from the glare, could stay if they were reduced in height.

The owners of the £1.5 million hotel may still appeal against the ruling but, if they lose, the lights will have to be reduced to around six feet.

The decision was backed by Horwich town council, which last week refused permission for the lights to stay.

Matthew Sheridan, who lives in a house backing on to the car park, has welcomed the move.

He said: "It's certainly good news but I won't believe that anything will be done until I see it for my own eyes.

"Even since they were fitted with the cowls they have been very intrusive and light up the whole of our garden."

They could have been sited better and they should have been a lot shorter to start with."

The hotel caused uproar when plans for it were revealed and was only given the go-ahead after a lengthy legal process.