DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott has given the go ahead to a multi-million pound housing development in Bromley Cross.

Planning permission has been granted for a scheme to create homes at the derelict Eagley Mills site.

The go ahead also means that Hough Lane will be closed to through traffic.

Bolton Council supported the scheme, but it had to be referred to the Secretary of State because part of the site is inside the Green Belt.

A public inquiry was held at the end of last year.

Specialist builder P J Livesey is planning to convert mills A, B and E into 157 apartments, while 89 newly-built town houses would be constructed by developers Bryant.

Planning permission has been given on conditions that there are major road improvements in the area, costing around £1.5 million.

Only emergency vehicles and buses will be allowed as through traffic on Hough Lane.

In addition, there will be traffic lights put up at the Dunscar War Memorial junction of Blackburn Road and Darwen Road and at the junction of Eagley Way and Blackburn Road.

Bromley Cross Tory Cllr Norman Critchley said: "I think this is the best we could have hoped for. "There were people who would have liked just open green fields, but that wasn't going to happen.

"The alternative was some kind of industrial use and this is preferable."

Another condition put on the development was that work has to start on the mills before the major part of the new-build development can begin.

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