A FACTORY which provided thousands of jobs for Westhoughton workers for almost 50 years has been flattened in preparation for developers to move in.

house builders Barratt and George Wimpey homes are due to start constructing nearly 500 houses and flats on the former Carnaud Metal Box site at Chew Moor.

But Bolton Council says that, unlike previous large housing development, where big builders have put nothing extra into the community, this time Westhoughton will benefit from cash contributions to education and open spaces provisions.

Barratt say they are delighted with the response to their planned development, with 27 properties already sold.

The first phase of their scheme features one and two bedroomed apartments and three bedroom town houses ranging in price from £97,000 to £141,500.

George Wimpey have named their section of the development Madison Park and plan to put up 117 homes.

As well as the apartments and town houses, both developers plan to include detached properties up to five bedroomed.

Both companies say they expect to start building shortly and it is thought it could take five years before the development is finished.

The arrival of the homes is the result of a decline in the manufacturing industry.

The Metal Box factory shut in December, 2003, after 48 years in the town.

In its heyday in the late 60s, more than 1,500 people worked at the plant producing metal cans and components for the food and drink industry.

But fierce competition from many foreign manufacturers led to a decline and its closure.

The land was soon snapped up by opportunistic house builders and, despite protests from residents concerned about the over development of Westhoughton, the Manchester Road site was granted planning permission to build.

Westhoughton councillor and the council's executive member for the environment David Wilkinson says that while he would have preferred to retain the site for manufacturing it was not realistic.

Mr Wilkinson said he believed that the housing schemes were giving Westhoughton as much value as possible with money from the developers being put towards public space provision, traffic improvements and £1million for education.