FEWER than 270 people attended the five local plan consultation events.

The consultation on the Labour-run council’s updated draft local plan has now closed.

The consultation events, five in total, were all held at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

A council spokesman said: “They were held there because this was a central venue accessible to everyone across the borough.

“The town centre is well served by public transport and there was plenty of available parking.

“The large space at the stadium ensured we could manage the numbers attending and maintain social distancing.

“We made sure we held events across different times of the day and on a weekend to ensure as many people as possible had the opportunity to attend. The event was also wheelchair accessible.

“We also provided all consultation documents and a consultation video on our website, ensured hard copies of the plan and response forms were available in all libraries across the borough and provided consultation boards to parish councils so they could undertake their own events.

“We did not go to other locations across the borough as we had concerns about the ability to hold safe events given Covid risks, the nature of the venues we would need to use and likely the large number of attendees.”

The council has confirmed 263 attended the five consultation events in total.

The authority has also outlined the next steps for the local plan.

A spokesman said: “The next steps are for the council to review all of the representations made during the consultation, prior to submitting the plan for ‘examination in public’, to be carried out by an independent inspector.

“Separate cabinet and full council approval will be sought for submission of the plan to the Planning Inspectorate.

“It is anticipated the earliest date for the examination in public will be summer 2022.”

But the council says it is not yet in a position to confirm how many responses it received during the consultation period.

A spokesman added: “We are currently going through all of the responses to ensure there is no duplication between people (eg, people who have sent in a representation by e-mail and also sent in the same representation using the online form).

“Also, some representations have come in signed on behalf of a number of individuals and we need to confirm how we are treating these.”