Plans to build 46 affordable homes in Barnoldswick have been submitted to Pendle Council.

Mulbury Homes wants to build 23 two-bedroom homes and 23 three-bedroom houses at Allotment Gardens, off Valley Road.

The site to be developed is on 2.37 acres of scrub land between allotments and a private car park used by Silent Night.

The plans include associated car parking and garden areas, access, an internal estate road and landscaping on land off Valley Road.

In 2006, planning permission was granted for the change of use of the site to car parking for Silent Night to extend its car park. Permission was renewed in 2009 and again in 2012.

In a justification statement, Smith Planning Consultancy state that the site was once protected as open space but the series of applications for a change of use superseded the land’s protective status.

The plan to build 46 homes is considerably scaled back from initial proposals which were for 72 houses on a larger section of the site, including the Silent Night car park.

Councillor Ken Hartley (Lib Dem, Craven ward) said his two primary concerns were the preservation of the boundary between private allotments bordering the site and the retention of Silent Night’s car park.

He said: “The council agreed to sell a roadside verge that would allow the developers to make a new access to the site.

“As a condition of the sale, we asked for a commitment to keep the car park, which involved a reduction in total area and the number of houses.”

Coun Hartley said he now “feels easier” about the plans. “They’re not trying to encroach on the allotments bordering the site,” he said. “I’m also very happy they’ve reduced the size of the housing site to preserve the car park.”

But Coun Jennifer Purcell (Cons, Craven ward) said she wished developers would complete work on unfinished housing estates, such as the former Westfield Mill, off Carr Road, Barnoldswick, rather than build new ones.

“They should finish off that housing estate before they start putting up new houses.”