ANOTHER chapter has been added to the long-running saga of a Furness housing development after more homes were given the green light.

At a meeting of the Barrow Borough Council planning committee on Tuesday, a plan to build six houses near Roose Station, in Flass Lane, was approved.

An application made by Roose Homes Ltd was unanimously approved by the committee. The development will see two houses, and four town houses built over the coming months.

The site, on which the Roose Garden Centre formerly stood, has been in development for more than 15 years.

In 2001, plans were first submitted to transform the area into a housing estate. Since that application for 17 houses, more than 10 further applications have been made for the area.

In 2003, an application for 20 dwellings was made and in 2005, a further three houses and 12 flats were added.

One bone of contention did arise at Tuesday's meeting over the parking provision made for residents or, more specifically, the lack of any such arrangement.

Councillor Bill McEwan said: "The only thing I'd raise is this car park; it seems up in the air - what is the situation?"

Mr McEwan's concerns over car parking are not a new issue for the development site.

In a report prepared by the council before a decision was made, the provision of car parking was labelled as a "key issue" for the development.

However, it transpired that an agreement between Network Rail and the station operator at Roose could not be made.

The report read: "Network Rail stated that any adoption [of a car park] would have to have agreement of both Network Rail and the station operator. It was formally put to them that a strong expression of intent would need to be demonstrated. No such expression was made."

This most recent application, said council planning officer Charles Wilton, made no further attempt to address the issue of parking in the area.

He added: "If you go back to the very beginning, in 2001, there was no agreement for the developer to provide the car park."

Read more about the housing situation in Roose:

Plans approved for 30 more houses in Roose

Barrow council celebrates a housing "windfall" which would attract developers to the area