AN HISTORIC house in Lostock is to be bulldozed, despite objections by residents.

Number 18 Regent Road will be knocked down and replaced by a modern, four-bedroom home with a flat roof and a summer house in the garden.

Objectors told Bolton Council’s planning committee that the current house was “much admired” by residents and that knocking it down was “unjustified”.

But architects Architecture M said the building was not listed by English Heritage and that the new property would be an “exceptional family home”.

Committee members admitted they had mixed feelings about its design but agreed that Regent Road already contained many different architectural styles, so one more would not make a difference.

Harper Green ward councillor Laurence Williamson said: “I support approval. I’m sure I would want to live there but Regent Road is an area full of individual properties.”

Westhoughton South councillor David Wilkinson agreed. He said: “Yes, it’s a radical building but it will be a good, family accommodation that the current one isn’t.”

The application was given the go-ahead by a majority vote with just Astley Bridge ward councillor John Walsh opposing it.

Cllr Walsh said the council should protect unique old houses even if bodies like English Heritage wouldn’t.