Bolton set to approve Crompton Place demolition
Clearing the 280,000 sq ft shopping centre is the next step in initiating the local authority’s £200m regeneration plan for the town centre.
Bolton’s councillors will meet next week and have been recommended by officers to approve the knocking down of the centre that faces the town hall.
The four-acre redevelopment of Crompton Place is expected to provide capacity for up to 340 homes and a 110-room hotel.
In addition, 80,000 sq ft of office floorspace and 5,000 sq ft of ground floor leisure space is set to be delivered.
Bolton Council began the search for a development partner to deliver the £200m regeneration scheme in June.
It is expected that this process will run in tandem with the centre’s demolition.
The demolition will open up a nearly four-acre development site in the town centre. Credit: via planning documents
The officer’s report concedes that it would be “preferable” to be able to consider both Crompton Place’s demolition and redevelopment simultaneously.
It is expected to take around a year for the council to finalise a partnership.
A meanwhile use in an area facing Victoria Square is also set to be established and remain in place while the seven-year redevelopment plan progresses.
Potential meanwhile uses considered include pop-up food and beverage offers, sports screens, outdoor events, and markets.
Crompton Place shopping centre was purchased by the council from the Santander Pension Fund for £14.8m in 2018, kick-starting its future regeneration.
CBRE is working with Bolton Council on the project, with Trower & Hamlins and KPMG also advising.
To review the demolition application, search reference code 19641/25 on Bolton Council’s planning portal.
Turn half the thousands of square feet in a park/garden and make a proper Place facing the Town Hall. Offices, houses … how backward.
By Anonymous
I cannot believe that today we are trying to focus on the idea that what Bolton needs is more housing, and a bloody hotel. There’s a perfectly good hotel close to st peters way, and it’s always empty. Please stop deluding yourselves, we don’t want house’s, need shops. Bolton is dying as a hub. Stop wasting tax payers money.
By Paul mallalieu
What has happened to our town centre?
Bolton town centre has now become a housing estate. You only have to look at Bury town centre. Full of shops and thriving too.
By Anonymous
More bloody acomadation. What a mess bolton is at present.it will be years before we will see any benefits.
By Dave
We had a Hotel The Pack Horse Hotel because of no guests it was converted into students flats
By Cc
Laughable – icing on the cake!. Goodbye Bolton.
By Anonymous
Bolton needs a state of the art modern shopping mall, a water park or something new to greater Manchester.
Why a hotel when there is nothing new to attract visitors to Bolton. Who is targeted for the Hotel?
By Tawanda
Why can’t we have a super duper shopping centre like the Mill Gate in Bury? There is nothing left in bolton to bring shoppers in. We always go to Bury, great shopping, absolutely love the market, Bolton has nothing like this, you are just running it into the ground. I know housing is an issue but that’s not going o bring the shoppers in is it? Don’t go into bolton any more, nothing appeals to me, all the good shops are gone, so please think long and hard before you make a mistake, you need the footfall to make it worth visiting, that is my opinion
By Anonymous
Bolton town centre’s biggest problem is the homeless type people shouting, swearing and drinking, these people can be intimidating and it’s not a place to take children. Bury has the same demographic but handles them so much better.
By Anonymous
Councils make wrong decisions they are useless
By Paul lye
More ludicrous decisions from faceless bureaucrats who probably have no emotional attachment to our once great town. We now shop in Bury.
By TK
Your going to ruin Bolton town centre. It’s going to look like other towns and cities with tower blocks and offices.
By Anonymous
What we need is entertainment and eateries, and I don’t mean take-aways. Lower the cost of rent in the Market place and provide affordable housing.
Also, let’s have a team. Bring people in to eat and entertain, and support people to get to Salford and Manchester quickly
By Donna
We need a thriving town not more houses !!
By Greg Thorpe
They got rid of town centre slums 100 years ago. Now they’re building new ones. And what demographic are they aimed at
By Arthur Rhituss
Leave Church Gate and enter down town Beruit. They have ruined a once fantastic town
By Tony
Ridiculous building homes on crompton old shopping center ??? Killing the heart of bolton central ,bring back some kind of old shopping .
By James peake
It’s no longer a town centre but a housing estate.
By Anonymous
Well done, congratulations for annihilating our once thriving Bolton town centre. It no longer resembles or is unrecognisable from what it once was.
As a woman l no longer feel safe in the town l once worked in and loved.
By Anonymous
Building new homes and a hotel will bring people into the town centre who will spend money in shops, pubs, restaurants and cafes. It’s not rocket science!
By Anonymous
Bolton Town Centre has been in a sad decaying decline for many years. No footfall, quarter of the retail shops have sadly gone, lots of ‘to let’ signs everywhere and sadly lots of beggers everywhere.
The decline all started over 25 years ago when the massive Middlebrook Retail Park opened about 1997 with lots of free parking, shops, restaurants and cinema etc. The once thriving bustling Bolton Town Centre will not be the same again.
By Salford Born and Bred.
Bolton council are clueless… Why do they think a 110 room hotel is what we require. I remember walking around the centre as a young lad and it was thriving because people had an incentive to visit, the shops! We need to be making attractive centres with shops that will attract people back to the centre, a hotel won’t do that.
By Boltonian1996
Bolton needs to be back in Lancashire
By Anonymous
People want a thriving town centre but don’t want any people to live there. What are they expecting Bolton Council to do?
Also, hardly any of you go shopping anymore, most of you do it online. So why are you expecting shops to just appear, particularly if no one lives there?
I can imagine this would be really popular for people who want to commute into Manchester but can’t afford the city centre prices to rent.
By Anonymous
Why do people think a council should deliver shops? Same everywhere. Here’s the thing: the shops are dying out. They’re not being kicked out, they’re just going. Build it and they won’t come. You can have a few niche units and create a bit of a vibe, but you’re not going back to big, bustling retail centres in towns now. You can blame yourselves for not using the shops or you can blame others for helping market forces do this to your town. Complaining about councils getting more people into town centres in various sort of accommodation that might help prop up some level of retail use is pointing the finger in very much the wrong direction.
By Green Belt Ben
This farce just keeps rumbling on and once again shows the incompetence of Bolton council. Stop talking and start getting spades in the ground.
Church wharf, trinity street junction and folds road are also prime examples of their failure to deliver.
Bury, Stockport and even Rochdale and Wigan have moved ahead with redevelopment in recent times.
By Anonymous
Bolton needs a world class mall that is very huge and a skyscraper
By Anonymous