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Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

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I'd have thought Chorley St is one of the better routes into town as it is.David lloyd/that apartment complex on the infirmary site are nice at the top, there's apparantly a trendy cafe in one of the units opposite D lloyds and then towards the bottom some decent enough flats have been built opposite the Lads club

It's linked in with creating a pedestrian /cyclists friendly way into the town centre through Queens Park and along bark street.

Bearing in mind that Tesco were due to be an anchor store in a big development on the car parks in that valley

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There are still loads of empty shops in town. How is it Bury manages to atract shops that Bolton can't.

There's plenty of empty shops in Bury.

And there's not many shops in Bury that bolton doesn't have too. HMV are about the only national chain with a store in Bury and not bolton

 

The Rock development is nice but the millgate and surrounding areas are pants

 

Its also about the size and quality of units available, Bolton was struggling with a lack of decent sized shop units.

 

BHS and New Look/C&A are available if the owners of Compton Place can attract any one to fill them but are too big for most companies.

The rest of the available units are only small shops and not big enough for today's retail world.

Without the blank canvas of a redeveloped unit where a company can imprint their brand on the shop it's hard in the current environment to attract them

Edited by frank_spencer
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if its just the size, theres 2 weeks work for a team of shop fitters to chuck in partitions and ceilings

 

crompton place, is it council owned?

Nope outside of the none of the town centre retail is owned by the council.

 

And it was more that the units were too small and all owned by different landlords.

 

The massive units at new look and BHS weren't there when I was last in the loop

Edited by frank_spencer
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if its just the size, theres 2 weeks work for a team of shop fitters to chuck in partitions and ceilings

 

crompton place, is it council owned?

 

I thought that certainly the former BHS would be sub-divided into smaller units incorporating a wide corridor of shop fronts as an addition to the Crompton Place shopping mall.

 

I still think the council allowing Primark to shut down the Bradshawgate end of the shopping mall pretty much annexed a large part of the town centre and gave rise to Bradshawgate being good for just pubs and fast food.

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Nope outside of the none of the town centre retail is owned by the council.

 

And it was more that the units were too small and all owned by different landlords.

 

The massive units at new look and BHS weren't there when I was last in the loop

 

 

didnt realise it was sub let

 

different landlords does make it more of a challenge

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didnt realise it was sub let

 

different landlords does make it more of a challenge

Crompton place is all owned by one company.

But all the shops ouside of there and the market place are owned by a myriad of different people.

The council had it sorted for a developer to renovate the block where Rhodes island coffee, early learning centre etc were but one landlord was playing silly buggers and delayed the development, then recession happened.

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The accelerated building on the Uni campus has guaranteed there will be substantial student accommodation being built.

The original application behind Le Mans was laughable..

commercial development will follow suit no doubt..

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I thought that certainly the former BHS would be sub-divided into smaller units incorporating a wide corridor of shop fronts as an addition to the Crompton Place shopping mall.

 

I still think the council allowing Primark to shut down the Bradshawgate end of the shopping mall pretty much annexed a large part of the town centre and gave rise to Bradshawgate being good for just pubs and fast food.

Dont think the council would have had much say in the matter

 

Am guessing that Crompton Place is privately owned so they could do it though as you say it does shut off a link to a different part of town

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Dont think the council would have had much say in the matter

 

Am guessing that Crompton Place is privately owned so they could do it though as you say it does shut off a link to a different part of town

Would have thought planning permission was needed to shut off that exit

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Would have thought planning permission was needed to shut off that exit

Iirc the council wasn't in favour but Primark threatened to throw their toys out of the pram if they didn't get their way. Council could have called their bluff but didn't take the risk?

Edited by RoadRunnerFan
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It's the new shithole end of town. When you consider it's one of the most important driveble routes through town, from Trinity Street you have large commercial buildings on both sides with no businesses in them pretty much all the way to Nelson Sq/Silverwell Street and then an equal mix of shit pubs and shitter fast food outlets until you get to Prestons of Bolton, an iconic building lying empty.

Not all entirely to do with Primark closing off that end of town but, from all the available parking; Market Place, Crompton Place, Topp Way, Deane Road, all just too far tfor most folk to park and walk. Without a decent car park on that end they'll always struggle to find tennants to fill the empty units.

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Not sure if replacing opening doors with non opening doors needs planning permission

 

Unless there's something in the original terms of the permission that says they can't

They needed planning permission, council didn't want to give it, Primark threatened to pull out. This was in 2009 at the height of the recession. Primark held a gun to the councils head so they backed down. A quick google search will show up the BN article from the time.

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It's the new shithole end of town. When you consider it's one of the most important driveble routes through town, from Trinity Street you have large commercial buildings on both sides with no businesses in them pretty much all the way to Nelson Sq/Silverwell Street and then an equal mix of shit pubs and shitter fast food outlets until you get to Prestons of Bolton, an iconic building lying empty.

 

Not all entirely to do with Primark closing off that end of town but, from all the available parking; Market Place, Crompton Place, Topp Way, Deane Road, all just too far tfor most folk to park and walk. Without a decent car park on that end they'll always struggle to find tennants to fill the empty units.

There's a multi storey going on the site of Wayne Walkers mystery meats.

 

The merchants quarter plans would've seen most of the stretch from the old BMW dealers to cash converters replaced.

With the railway triangle development taking care of the other side.

Recession led to the death of one scheme and massive scaling back of the railway triangle plans

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But you're talking about what was going to happen. We're not interested in that, we're interested in what the council will do to stop the rot. The council burying their head and pretending that end of town isn't there is not an option.

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They needed planning permission, council didn't want to give it, Primark threatened to pull out. This was in 2009 at the height of the recession. Primark held a gun to the councils head so they backed down. A quick google search will show up the BN article from the time.

I haven't been in the town centre for many years to see what they have done but if it is simply expanding within the centre itself then that wouldn't need permission

 

I'll see what the Bolton news article says though

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I haven't been in the town centre for many years to see what they have done but if it is simply expanding within the centre itself then that wouldn't need permission

 

I'll see what the Bolton news article says though

Check the article mate. Replacing the entrance with shop fronts was the issue.

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But you're talking about what was going to happen. We're not interested in that, we're interested in what the council will do to stop the rot. The council burying their head and pretending that end of town isn't there is not an option.

Until the private investors come back then there's not a lot the council can do.

Slowly but surely they're bringing investment back.

could they have done it quicker? Probably

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