A BUILDER will be ordered to stop work on a controversial Bolton development.

Planning chiefs will tell developers Crosby Homes NW Ltd that they cannot carry on with an 11-home site at Regent Road, Lostock.

They will not be allowed to re-start work until a sewage treatment plant for the development is given Environment Agency approval.

Residents fear that sewage could be discharged into Bessy Brook which runs through private gardens.

Bolton Council's planning control sub committee councillors were warned that they could have to pay out a compensation claim from the builders. But they still decided that a stop order shold be issued. Councillors were dealing with an amended application to demolish a house and to build a terrace of three town houses.

But they were furious that the scheme has already started even though a condition was put on the planning permission for the main development that work should not start until the surface water regulation system had been approved.

Tory Cllr Norman Critchley called for the stop notice to be issued.

He said: "There is a major, major problem here.

"We should issue a stop notice and the matter should be deferred until all the recommendations have been implemented."

Labour Cllr Guy Harkin added: "If I had thought that the condition we imposed could not have been enforced, I would not have voted the way I did when we gave planning permission."

But Mr Richard Cowley, deputy environment director, said that there could be "financial consequences" for the council if they issued a stop notice. He later explained that the developer could claim compensation for the time that the scheme was delayed if the Environment Agency passes the sewage system.

But Cllr Harkin said: "It is the political will of this committee - across all parties - that they should be stopped from what they are doing."

Resident Mr Roy Walmsley who lives opposite the development said after the meeting: "We are very pleased with the decision. The councillors understood the problem we have and some admitted that they wished they had not given planning permission for the original application."

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said that they had asked the developer for more information before considering their application.

He added: "This has now come through and we will consider these proposals."

A spokesman for Crosby Homes NW said they did not wish to comment at present.

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