PROTESTERS packed the council chamber at Bolton town hall yesterday for a controversial public inquiry.

It was over a planning wrangle which residents fear could lead to "another Birtenshaw".

Bolton Council has already given planning permission for a bungalow to be built in the garden of The Gatehouse, Turton Road, Bradshaw.

But the land is protected by the 1934 Ashworth Covenant which was at the centre of the Birtenshaw legal battles of the 1980s.

And Bolton Council has refused permission to allow the covenant to be lifted.

The owners of The Gatehouse, Granville and Doreen Daubney, who want to build a bungalow for elderly relatives, were appealing against this decision.

Residents in the Bromley Cross area fear that if it is lifted, it could leave other land in the area open for development.

The property is on the edge of the Barratt development at Turton Heights which was Bolton's bitterest planning battle in the 1980s.

There was a huge campaign against the development but, after many legal battles, Barratt built 288 homes

Planning consultant Frank Whittaker, representing the Daubneys, said the application to lift the covenant was only for the small area where the bungalow was to be built.

There was no intention to weaken the covenant on land on the other side of the railway.

Leolin Price, QC, for Bolton Council, argued that it could lead to a precedent which could affect the covenant on other land.

The Government inspector will report to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and a decision will be made in the next few months.

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