A housing bid by Bowes of Watton has been given the green light by planners - and is set to boost plans for youth facilities in the town. Bowes' scheme would see about 131 homes on its site in Brandon Road which is currently mainly used for storage and car parking.

A housing bid by Bowes of Watton has been given the green light by planners - and is set to boost plans for youth facilities in the town.

Bowes' scheme would see about 131 homes on its site in Brandon Road which is currently mainly used for storage and car parking.

And land it owns off Saham Road will be donated to the town's Rainbow Project to create a park and youth facilities in lieu of green open space on the development itself.

The firm says it needs to raise capital to help pay for upgrading its abattoir facilities, on the opposite side of Brandon Road, due to EU legislation.

Trevor Wells, agent for Bowes, said margins were tight at the moment, due to rising pig feed prices pushing up the cost of pig breeding and the cost of importing meat, but that the capital raised would pay for upgrade work.

And it means employees will no longer have to walk across a main road to get to work from the car park.

More detailed plans still have to be agreed, but the proposals for 131 homes on the 3.1ha site, which sits at the edge of Watton, were agreed in principle with outline planning permission by Breckland Council's planning committee yesterday.

Julian Horn and Paul Adcock, project leader of the Rainbow Project, said the donation of land off Saham Road would be a great boost to the project, which wants to create an indoor facility for youngsters on land between Saham Road and the back of the townsports centre, and meant they would be able to apply for a Lottery grant.

A separate planning application has been submitted to create a new Bowes staff car park on the abattoir site. Bowes is the biggest employer in Watton, with about 650 staff.