HOSPITAL bosses are involved in a new planning wrangle just a week after the TV Watchdog programme highlighted the problems over the new super incinerator.

Residents have accused Bolton General Hospital of being bad neighbours for putting a large air conditioning unit on the outside of a building without planning permission.

Householders with gardens backing on to the hospital site say the large metal machinery overlooking their property is unsightly and noisy.

Original plans approved by the town hall included a plant room INSIDE the new Education and Medical Institute on the hospital boundary.

But people in Cambridge Close, Farnworth became angry when workman started putting the machinery on a flat roof OUTSIDE the building.

Their anger turned to dismay when contractors felled a row of trees which had screened their gardens from the hospital buildings, claiming vandals and thieves were using the trees to climb on to the site.

Housewife Carol Kay says she is angry that the air conditioning unit is being used without approval until the Council's planning committee meets next month to discuss a new application from the hospital.

She feels she and fellow residents have been misled and said: "We have always wanted to settle this amicably because the hospital are our neighbours and they are there to benefit everybody.

"But now I feel they are walking all over us - they know the law inside out and use it to get exactly what they want.

"If they really wanted to be good neighbours they would have bricked this unit in and insulated the walls so we can still enjoy our gardens."

A hospital spokesman said it did not become clear until after the original application had been submitted that the air conditioning unit would be on the roof.

The spokesman said that regardless of the outcome of the new planning application, the Hospital Trust would replace the felled trees with mature conifers and work with contractors to reduce any noise from the unit.

"We are aware of the concerns of local residents and are keeping in close touch with them so that we can reach an amicable solution," said the spokesman.

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