PLANS to build hundreds of new homes in a borough are finally back on track the council’s regeneration boss has claimed.

Cllr Phil Riley will tonight tell colleagues 15 sites across Blackburn with Darwen now have 11 developers building or about to start constructing 1,387 houses.

In December 2016, he was forced to admit only 25 out of 300 projected new homes had been started in the borough that year leaving the council’s target of 9,500 new properties in 15 years in tatters.

Tory group leader John Slater accused the council of setting ‘ambitious and unrealistic targets’ it could never meet.

At tonight’s full council forum, Cllr Riley will reveal: “We have 11 active developers in the borough working across 15 sites yielding over 1300 homes and we are in discussions with two new entrants to the market who will soon be commencing developments in Darwen.

“One is a large housebuilder new to Blackburn and the other is a small boutique developer who will soon submit an application for the Belgrave Mill site.”

Cllr Riley lists the sites and houses being built or ready to start, adding that 150 had already been sold or reserved.

He added: “These sites are seeing a great deal of interest from potential purchasers residing outside the borough who currently live in the Ribble Valley, South Ribble and Preston, but work in Blackburn.”

Cllr Slater said: “I shall be challenging the figures and requesting details of what houses are being built where and how far they have got.

“Too many are being built in the wrong place on green belt land rather than brownfield sites and there are not enough affordable homes.”

Cllr Riley said: “We are actively bringing forward schemes for affordable homes which are not included in these latest figures.”

Cllr David Foster, leader of the borough Liberal Democrat group, said: “My concern is whether the developers and council are providing the services needed to go with the new homes.”

In November 2015, government inspectors approved the borough’s controversial blueprint to build 9,500 new residential properties over 15 years including 4,000 executive-style homes on greenfield sites covering 1,200 acres of countryside on the outskirts of Blackburn and Darwen of which 593 are currently ‘green belt’.