TREVOR Roberts, the Bolton man who is president of the Royal Town Planning Institute, has given his backing to plans to create an "urban village" on 650 acres of derelict Royal Ordnance land in Chorley.

Mr Roberts toured the site with Royal Ordnance property manager Chris Delahunt and said afterwards that the planned scheme fitted in perfectly with the Government's new startegy for building on "brownfield" sites rather than green countryside.

"This land presents the perfect opportunity to make a significant contribution to development needs without encroaching on green fields," he said.

Mr Delahunt said that concentration of RO munitions manufacturing in South Wales meant the land at Euxton, near Chorley was surplus. He said the urban village could provide 10,000 new jobs, 1,500 houses and a new business area centred on a re-opened rail station.

Previous news story

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.