PEOPLE power has helped overturn proposals for a new shop on a busy Bolton road.

Council chiefs threw out plans for the shop at the junction of Chorley Old Road and Devonshire Road because they feared extra traffic would prove a problem.

The site for the shop is close to the spot where a young girl was injured in a recent road accident, the planning control sub-committee was told.

Residents bombarded Bolton Council's planning office with 238 letters of protest against the original application for the food shop, which included nine car parking spaces.

Worried

A petition containing 252 signatures was also submitted against the original application made by Citypark Realy Limited to build on the empty site.

Worried residents said the development would create further traffic congestion in the area and claimed they were already well served by other nearby shops.

Members of the Council's planning control sub-committee agreed with the protesters when they refused the application on traffic grounds.

Cllr Alan Rushton said he had spoken to Bolton police who had expressed "strong reservations" about potential traffic problems.

He added: "The traffic on this road junction is horrendous. It was a reasonable decision and I'm delighted the committee chose to refuse the application."

A group of residents who travelled to Bolton town hall to hear committee members give the proposed shop the thumbs-down were jubilant.

James Sharples, 32, who lives next to the proposed site, said: "The level of protest has shown what a good community spirit we have in that area.

"A large number of people from a wide area have bothered to make a stand about this."

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