A fisheries site could be transformed into a major housing development under new proposals.

An application for outline planning permission has been submitted to Hyndburn council to build 122 homes on the Devine Fisheries site off Broad Oak Road between Baxenden and Accrington.

Documents sent to the council state the fisheries owner and applicant Cath Whelan, of Windmill Rise SPV Ltd in Preston, wishes ‘to investigate the potential for a large scale residential development across the site’.

The area was historically part of the Broad Oak Printworks and includes two redundant landfill sites. There are two remaining reservoirs used for fisheries.

Planning agents Rural Futures (North West) Ltd said the scheme would include a mix of three or four bedroom houses and a small number of bungalows.

Twenty-nine of the 122 homes would be earmarked for ‘affordable housing’ with the rest sold at market value.

The development would be split into two areas with 71 homes to the north of the site and 51 to the south.

A new access road would be created directly off Manchester Road and the former large reservoir to the east ‘will be used for most of the environmental mitigation works associated with the development’.

Baxenden councillor Terry Hurn said he was ‘not happy’ with the application ‘as it stands’.

He said: “I’m a bit concerned about it, particularly where they want to put the entrance onto Manchester Road.

“I personally don’t think it will get off the ground, mainly because of the infrastructure cost.

“I’m not sure if it will be viable or not. I think it’s pie in the sky.”

In application documents prepared for the council, planning agents Rural Futures, said: “It is considered that the proposal would have positive impacts in terms of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

“Any negative landscape impacts and loss of open countryside are considered insignificant and significant mitigation measures are proposed.

“Proposals should not give rise to an increase in traffic volumes that exceed the capacity of the local or strategic transport network and they should not cause harm to the character of the surrounding area.”

In response to Coun Hurn’s criticisms, John Welbank, from Rural Futures, told the Observer: “The developers bringing this development forward are very experienced and they would’t have gone to the significant costs of putting an application together if they didn’t think it was economically viable.

“We have had a lot of pre-application discussions with Lancashire highways and the draft scheme as proposed to date they are more than happy with.”