Salford City Council (SCC) has opposed proposals to build a new international standard racecourse near Manchester as part of a major development project put forward by developer Peel Holdings.

The project is set to go before a public planning inquiry next year, although the council met to discuss the plans on 18 December in order to register its formal view, unanimously rejecting the proposals. The racecourse, complete with a 6,000-seat grandstand, is at the centre of the Salford Forest Park scheme, which also includes an eventing course and an equestrian centre.

An 18-hole golf course, a four-star, 80-bedroom hotel incorporating a restaurant, a gym and a swimming pool, and a forest park visitor centre are also among the plans for the 1,690-acre (684-hectare) site, as well as an eco-village, 11 miles (17.7km) of cycle trails and 20 miles (32.2km) of footpaths. Peel Holdings, which first unveiled the scheme in 2001, lodged an appeal in November for the plans to go before the planning inspectorate, after both SCC and Wigan Council failed to determine planning application for the scheme.

Philip Rothwell, senior development planning manager at Peel Holdings, said: "Having spent the last four years supplying detailed information, we believe that lodging an appeal is the only way that a decision will be made on this scheme. "Even if the councils wished to approve the scheme it is almost certain that the proposals would have been called in for determination by the secretary of state. Effectively, all we are doing by appealing now is bringing forward the public inquiry that will have to be held."

A spokesperson for the council revealed that even if the plans were for council determination, a decision would have been delayed due to issues concerning the use of the M60 motorway, and how the development would impact upon green belt land.