BOLTON Wanderers have been given more time to begin work on a new football academy.

The plans involve building an indoor football school and also the building of homes for sale.

The club was originally granted outline permission on condition that they came back with more details by next January.

Club officials, however, believe it is "impractical" to meet that deadline and have asked for it to be extended for another three years.

Wanderers hope the academy will help them compete with Premiership giants such as Manchester United and Liverpool whose academies have produced players such as David Beckham and Michael Owen.

The Whites have already been granted full planning permission for 13 football pitches, one of them with artificial turf, on land to the east of the former British Aerospace site, about half a mile from the Reebok Stadium.

And they have also been given the green light to convert the old apprentices' training school on Ox Hey Lane into a football school.

But the club has yet to reveal details of the new building they want to house the football academy, or the number of homes which would be built near the sports fields and put on the market.

One of the factors that appears to be holding up the project is that they will not be able to move on to the site until a new home is found for the Lostock's football and rugby clubs which are currently based there.

There is also opposition from local residents.

Four letters were sent to the planning committee by nearby householders who claim there has been a lack of consultation and that no consideration has been given to the burden that will be put on the local surrounding road network.

Horwich Town Council has raised no objection to an extension of the time period.

Cllr Barbara Ronson, a member of the Horwich Council, said: "We felt it would be unreasonable to object to the time extension but a lot of residents are concerned at how this will affect them."