A BUNGALOW in a "leafy" suburb is set to be knocked down to make way for three large houses as revised plans have been given the green light.

Planning permission has been granted to demolish the property in Albert Road West and build three detached four-bedroom houses in its place.

This comes a year after an application to build four houses at the same site was thrown out by the planning committee – a decision which was upheld by a planning inspector in April following an appeal.

The plans have now been revised to address concerns about the plot size, the front boundary and the loss of a sycamore tree.

But Adrian Denson, who lives on Greenmount Lane, told councillors at the town hall on Thursday that the revised plan only represents a 10 per cent reduction in plot size.

He said: "All that has happened here is that four houses have been replaced by three slightly bigger ones."

Local councillor Anne Galloway said that the new proposal would still result in overdevelopment of the area.

She told the planning committee that the proposed houses would be as tall as the mansions on Grundy Fold Farm, a third higher than the neighbouring property and too tall for this plot of land.

There were also concerns about a lack of parking spaces.

She said: "There is a real need to conserve and enhance local distinctiveness in areas of Bolton like this - why else do we have area policies if we just ignore them."

Heaton and Lostock councillor Bob Allen, who sits on the planning committee, said that the applicant had not addressed all of the concerns raised by the planning inspector.

He said: "It still looks like a terraced plot and its certainly out of keeping with the houses in the area.”

But the committee voted to approve the application.

Cllr Nick Peel said: "They have, unfortunately, according to our officers' analysis, addressed the three reasons that the inspector gave. The inspector considered those three reasons to be collectively adverse. Addressing one or even two of the three may have been enough.

"I do appreciate that this area of Bolton is defined by lower density housing. But it is also quite mixed."