A BID to put up a huge mast on the moors near Bolton to measure wind speed has been turned down by planning councillors.

They refused National Wind Power temporary planning permission for an anemometer mast at Turton Heights Moor on land north of Cox Green Road, Bolton.

Residents feared it could be the start of a huge wind farm of propeller-driven electricity turbines.

Planning control sub committee councillors were told that the application was only for the mast and that was all they should be considering. But chairman Labour Cllr Jack Foster said: "I just think that this is the wrong idea for Turton Heights."

Officers had recommended that the plan should be turned down because it was it was in an "open, natural setting" in a protected Green Belt.

It was also refused because it was close to a stone circle which is classified as an ancient monument.

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