PLANS to turn a three-bedroom house in Leigh into two self-contained apartments have been approved despite concerns about parking.

The two-storey house in Turner Street can now be converted into two flats and alterations to the property can go ahead with planning permission in place.

The planning committee unanimously approved the application on Tuesday.

But Wigan Council received 11 letters of objection to the plans from residents.

Laura Clarke addressed the planning committee on behalf of the objectors.

She told councillors via video conference that by creating a new dwelling, more cars would park on the street which is ‘already overcrowded’.

The limited availability of parking spaces has resulted in residents struggling to sell their properties between 2016 and 2018, according to the objector.

She said: “The parking situation in Turner Street has been dire for years.

“Households have multiple cars and certain residents have children and they’ve had to park on adjoining streets carrying babies and toddlers back to their homes as a result of there being none available in the street.”

Planning officer Olivia Williams pointed out that the number of bedrooms at the property would fall from three bedrooms to two if plans were approved.

The house has been empty for an ‘extensive period’, according to neighbours.

But someone could move in, the council officer said, and the local authority could not limit the number of cars new residents will have parked in the street.

She said: “It wouldn’t be wrong to assume that there could be three adults that live in the property as a three-bedroom house that all have access to a car.

“Moving to a two-bedroom property is decreasing the bedroom provision.

“The fact that it has been vacant for some time does not mean that someone could not move in there tomorrow and carry on habiting as a three-bedroom dwelling.”

Pemberton councillor Jeanette Prescott spoke in favour of the application.

She said: “Looking at this, it doesn’t have anything different than any other property except for the additional parking space. I don’t have any issue with it.

“Terraced houses were made many years ago with hardly any vehicles on the road.

“Unfortunately, that’s not the way of it now. We’ve all got terraced streets around the area and unfortunately all people have cars.

“But at least this one has some sort of parking to it.”

The application was approved with 11 votes for and none against.