CONCERNED residents fear a new school will create traffic chaos for their quiet cul-de-sac.

Residents living in Greenstone Close, Horwich, met this week to discuss the impact that the proposed church school would have on their area.

It comes as planning chiefs at Bolton Town Hall prepare to consider an outline application for the primary school which would concentrate on siting and means of access.

The new Church of England school, funded by Manchester Diocesan Board of Education, would replace the town's St Catherine's school, in Richmond Street, which dates back to Victorian times.

Councillors met with residents to discuss the new school, earmarked for a site at the top end of the cul-de-sac which includes private homes and housing association bungalows.

One concerned resident told the BEN: "People living here are not happy about this.

"It seems daft to have a school built in a cul-de-sac with just one means of access. A couple of times an ambulance has been called to help one of the elderly residents but there are concerns that extra traffic would affect things like that. We will be putting in an objection about it."

But yesterday Cllr Barbara Ronson stressed proposals for the school have already featured on the town's unitary development plan -- Bolton's planning blueprint -- for a number of years.

She said: "I do have sympathy for residents who want to ensure traffic flow is all right, but the site has been identified for a school on the last UDP.

"When people bought houses there solicitors' searches should have shown that a school was planned to be built nearby.

"People have every right to express their concerns but if a school was not built there, houses would still be built on that site."