RESIDENTS are preparing to take on developers in a battle for Winsford Flashes.

A day-long public inquiry will be held into plans to build 16 homes on land off Ways Green, which residents fear could lead to a spate of similar developments at the beauty spot.

Directors of Belflower Homes were furious when Vale Royal Borough Council's planning committee quashed the scheme last year. But the company refused to give up and lodged an appeal, which means the scheme will be scrutinised by a Government inspector during the public inquiry in August.

Spokesman James Hughes said: 'We have got planning consultants preparing our case for us. They are very confident that we will win.'

He said the firm had been advised to submit another, separate, application to build 25 homes on the site, to the rear of 255, 257 and 259 Ways Green, which will include affordable housing.

That was the original size of the development the company wanted to build, but it scaled down its application after consulting residents in an attempt to get it approved.

Both will be subject to next month's public inquiry and, because of that, the company says that if it is successful it will try to force councillors to foot the £30,000 bill for the appeal process.

Mr Hughes said: 'I'm not sure if the inspector has it in his power to levy damages, but we will be look into that.

'Ideally, we'd like to make the councillors themselves pay for it because the council officers actually recommended that our application be approved.

'It was the councillors who turned it down against their own officers' wishes. The inquiry has been pencilled in for August and I would imagine we will be able to start building shortly after that.

'I don't know how long these things take, so I don't know if we will be able to send in the bulldozers as soon as it is finished.'

Council planners had originally recommended approval of the first scheme, but councillors voted to reject it after receiving 48 letters of complaint and a petition signed by 95 residents.

Another company, Badger Homes, had already failed in its bid to build 21 luxury houses on the site, after it prompted 208 letters of objection.

Families living near the Flashes say they are preparing to take on the company in a battle of David-versus-Goliath proportions.

People living in Ways Green are adamant they don't want any development built near Winsford Flashes and they believe that if the company wins the inquiry it will open up the site to future development.

They formed the Flashes Action Group to fight the original Badger Homes application and Andy Scott, who lives nearby, said: 'The Flashes is one of the few beauty spots we have left and it would be a terrible shame to build anything anywhere near it.'

The public inquiry takes place at Wyvern House, Winsford, on Tuesday, August 10, starting at 10am.