SIXTY-one apartments could be built on the site of a licensed club in Walkden.

Developer Wainhomes Ltd has submitted blueprints to demolish licensed premises and function rooms at The Oaks on Manchester Road.

The proposals, which cover 0.7 hectares of land on the edge of How Clough Woods, were due to be discussed by councillors at a planning meeting today.

The development includes plans for one detached dwelling and three four-storey buildings comprising 61 apartments.

All apartments will have two bedrooms and the single detached property will have four bedrooms. The plans will include landscaping for the surrounding area, 61 parking spaces and a new access road for vehicles.

Council officers believe the site, near Oakwood Drive and Woodside Avenue, will not "significantly impact on neighbouring residents".

Developers Wainhomes Ltd claim that mature trees, which would have to be cut down to make way for the development, are in a poor condition or dangerous.

A spokesman for The Oaks did not wish to comment on the application, and dismissed any future proposals as "conjecture".

He added that the club's management would wait to see if planning permission was approved before making any decisions about The Oak's future.

This is the latest in a long line of planning bids at The Oaks. In 2000, an outline planning application for 27 new houses was withdrawn.

Fourteen years earlier, permission was refused for 16 dwellings, and in 1985, plans for 19 houses were blocked because of the potential loss of trees and area amenities.