PLANS to build eight new homes in Haydock have been submitted.

An application proposing a residential development comprising four detached and four semi-detached houses at the former Haydock Catholic Club, on Church Road, has been put forward.

The homes would have private driveways and on-site parking, plus associated informal landscaping.

The design and access statement says the site is free of any ‘mature trees’, but the existing building and some small areas of scrub at the site boundaries provide ‘potential roost features’ and nesting habitats for bats and small birds.

But it states that during a prescribed survey period no evidence of bats was found, and scrub clearance works have already taken place outside the nesting season as recommended in the bats and breeding birds report.

It adds: “The applicant considers that the proposed development will provide a good example in the re-use of previously developed land, which will contribute towards the borough housing stock without harming local residential amenity or highway safety.

“In particular the houses will be classed as affordable housing. Care has been taken to ensure this development reflects its position in the locality, along with the existing residential arrangements on all sides of the site.

“As such, the applicant feels that there are no material planning reasons why this application should not be approved, subject to any reasonable conditions associated with this type of development.”