A 127-YEAR-OLD social club is set to be demolished to make way for 24 self-contained “affordable” flats.

An application to knock down Kearsley Social Club in Manchester Road to make way for the new housing has been approved by the planning committee.

This comes after councillors deferred their decision last month to allow the developer to address concerns about the size of the flats, lack of amenity space and its proximity to a bungalow in Holcombe Close.

Since then, the three-storey building has been redesigned so that it is two metres further away from the neighbouring property.

But the number of apartments, size of the flats and amenity space on site were not amended by applicant Watson Homes.

Kearsley councillor Mark Cunningham told the planning committee he remains “totally unconvinced”.

He said: “It’s merely moving the building a few feet and it doesn’t address the fundamental flaws in this application.

“It’s akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in an effort to bulldoze through an application which could blight the lives of existing residents and businesses by cooping up human beings like battery hens.

“Building a below standard social housing like this would have severe and permanent ramifications to the detriment to the established community.

“There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to show that if you treat people like animals, they might behave like animals.”

But architect Mark Harrison defended the plans for what he described as “high quality homes with high levels of insulation and low running costs”.

He stressed that the nationally described space standards are guidelines issued by central government but have not been adopted by Bolton Council.

Mr Harrison also assured the committee that the homes, which will be managed by housing association Bolton At Home, will be let to local people.

Cllr Debbie Newall, who suggested deferring the decision previously, welcomed the extra space from the existing property and the offer by the developer to pay £3,000 towards a play area or open space in Kearsley.

She said: “I asked for this to be deferred because I hoped we could improve it a lot more. We haven’t improved it to the extent that I wanted it to be improved, but I think we’ve gone a long way to making this a better application.”

Cllr Paul Sanders, another committee member, proposed approving the application, saying its benefits outweighed the potential negative impact of what could become a derelict site given the social club’s “questionable future”.

The planning committee voted to approve the application at a virtual meeting held on Thursday with all but four councillors voted in favour of the proposal.