THE controversial £200 million industrial and retail Cutacre development has been given the go-ahead by Bolton Council.

A special planning meeting was held to discuss the Harworth Estates Logistics North scheme to develop a four million sq ft distribution and manufacturing space, close to junction 4 of the M61, which will create thousands of jobs.

As well as shops, business units, and a 100-bed hotel, the company also received outline permission to build a 225-hectare country park.

It follows years of campaigning by residents and councillors, who wanted to see the old coal mining site turned into green space for the community.

Supermarket giant Aldi was also given permission to build its new North West headquarters and distribution centre on the site, with work expected to start early next year.

Haworth Estates now needs to permission from Salford and Wigan councils before work can start on the site.

Both will make a decision before the end of the year.

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Speaking after the meeting, chief executive of Harworth Estates, Owen Michaelson, said: “We are delighted to have received the support of Bolton Council for our scheme, which will make a significant contribution to the North West’s economy.

“We are fully committed to creating a first-class industrial and logistics centre that is likely to provide several thousand jobs in accordance with local planning policy.”

Cllr Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton Council, added it was fantastic to see so much investment in Bolton and the potential for more than 6,000 jobs.

He added: “This is £200 million pounds of investment in Bolton.

“It’s very exciting, and it’s great to look to what is being done and to see it come to fruition.

“It’s going to be the largest logistics centre in the North West — it will put Bolton on the map.”

Councillors voted in favour of the proposals — except for Cllr Alan Walsh, who said he had serious concerns about the provision by developers for transport.

He argued that a decision should be deferred until congestion problems were assessed.

Cllr Walsh said: “By my calculations, there will be an increase of 4,800 vehicles per month in and out of the site and on to residents’ roads.

“I don’t believe the road improvements proposed are sufficient.”

Hulton Cllr Andy Morgan agreed, but added that the benefits to the borough outweighed the traffic implications and problems surrounding public transport to the site.

He added Hulton councillors would continue to campaign for residents to make sure the proposal lives up to expectations.

Cllr Morgan said: “I am astounded the highways agency have made no comments about this, an already congested site.

“During the peak hours the traffic was backed up to junction five of the M61 — that’s how bad it is in the morning.

“That said, the benefits to the borough certainly are massive and none of us here can sincerely say that the negatives should be such that we could refuse it.”

The site at Cutacre has been the subject of years of debate, with Cllr Morgan and Cllr Walsh campaigning with residents to see the land turned into a country park once open cast mining ended.

In 2009, more than 3,500 people signed a petition calling for the land to be reclassified from “strategic employment land” into a country park, but were unsuccessful.

Cllr Nick Peel said the application put forward by Harworth Estates was a welcome development on an important parcel of land.

He added: “I completely understand the views of local residents who had different plans for this land.

“But this is an ideal piece of land to develop for the economic benefit of not just the borough but for the rest of the region.”

Aldi has committed to work with Bolton College to employ apprentices in its new operations on the site and in the building of its new headquarters.

Richard Woodford, who spoke on behalf of Aldi at the meeting, said: “It’s vital for Aldi — it’s really important as they hope to grow their operations from the current 63 stores in the North West to between 84 to 134 stores, representing a £50 million investment in the region.

“The lease on their current building ends in 2016, so it’s important work begins on this site as soon as possible.”