PLANS to build a new battery storage compound designed to provide rapid response electricity supply have been rejected.

Bolton Council has refused Astra Ventures permission to develop land at Ditchers Farm, off Slack Lane in Wingates, saying the proposal is not appropriate for the area.

The proposed site would have been unmanned and operated remotely, apart from rare maintenance visits, but town hall bosses say that it could be built in a more industrial area.

The council's planning office said: "It is acknowledged that the proposal requires a location in proximity to electricity grid infrastructure and to a gas connection, away from residential houses, which this location offers. "However, this does not preclude the proposal from being located with an urban, brownfield or industrial area which would be much more suitable for this type of the development.

"It is not considered that the justification put forward by the applicant for the development constitute very special circumstances that would outweigh the harm to the openness and purposes of Other Protected Open Land and the harm to the character and appearance of the area."