Bolton has suffered a few body blows recently. First came the announcement that Marks & Spencer was to close its Deansgate store, then, just 24 hours later, huge plans to bring a hotel and conference complex to the town centre, make improvements to Market Place and redevelop Crompton Place shopping centre were dealt a crippling blow when Bolton missed out on vital 'levelling up' cash.
But despite those setbacks it's not all doom and gloom. There are several other big projects in the pipeline which could transform Bolton in 2023 and beyond.
From plans for a new medical college and health centre, proposals to renovate the market and library and a Ryder Cup bid in the making, here we take a look at seven of the major new developments in the offing.
Farnworth
Work on the £50m regeneration of Farnworth is already underway. It will see 97 'design-led' homes, café bars, shops and a 'lush' green public square all created by developer Capital & Centric.
The former precinct, market, and Saddle Inn covering the site have been demolished and the sites are currently cleared. Speaking in December development Scott Mallinson said: "Not only will these new homes and shops transform the high street but they'll also have a positive social impact and we see that on other sites.
"Creating a new neighbourhood with a vibrant public square creates a sense of space and wellbeing and our aim is to encourage people and families to live in town centres again."
Just metres away from the regeneration of the high street, work is also well underway to refurbish Farnworth Leisure Centre, with an extended fitness suite and dance studio currently being built. The state-of-the-art Bolton College of Medical Sciences (see below) is also under construction in the town, at Royal Bolton Hospital.
Bolton College of Medical Sciences
Work has already begun to build a new medical and clinical skills college set to train thousands of professionals at the Royal Bolton Hospital site. The Bolton College of Medical Sciences (BCMS) is due to open in 2024 and its leaders say it will provide unrivalled training opportunities for aspiring and existing healthcare professionals, and is expected to serve as a transformational blueprint for training NHS staff.
The college is a collaborative project between the University of Bolton, Bolton College, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and Bolton Council. The BCMS intends to give people a direct route into clinical healthcare employment, with a focus on practical, skills-based learning in a live hospital environment.
In addition to a range of new courses and apprenticeships that will provide entry-level and higher-level skills development for those aged 16 and over, BCMS will also deliver continual professional development opportunities for existing NHS staff. Apprenticeship provision will extend to higher and degree apprenticeships, with programmes including nursing, care leadership and management.
BCMS, which was allocated £20m by the Levelling-Up Fund last year, will deliver training to approximately 3,000 learners each year.
Once open, it is expected to contribute £150m to the local economy over its lifetime. The construction phase, led by contractor Willmott Dixon, will generate a local spend of around £6m, largely through local employment and supply-chain expenditure.
Construction of the building frame is due to continue in 2023.
Bradshawgate
A leading developer has pledged to 're-write the rules' on town centre living when it starts work at Bradshawgate. Manchester-based Capital & Centric, the firm behind the redevelopment of Farnworth, are bringing forward plans for the first few areas on 6.2 acres of brownfield sites in and around the train and bus stations.
Capital & Centric said that the plans, dubbed 'Neighbourhood Bolton', would be a 'blueprint for a new breed of town centre communities, with design-led townhouses boasting distinctive architecture, set around green streets'. They said their goal was for Neighbourhood Bolton to be ‘a catalyst that kick-starts wider regeneration of the whole area, including surrounding sites’.
Tim Heatley, co-founder of Capital & Centric, said: "Bolton deserves sustained investment. The latest levelling up news was obviously disappointing, but we believe in Bolton’s future, just a week or so later, we're here announcing our second local project to both unlock investment and bring about positive change.
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"Loads of new build homes are a pastiche of the past and designed to maintain the status quo. But there's got to be an alternative. We want to re-write the rules on suburban living and deliver homes with a design-led edge on brownfield sites that many write off as being too difficult. Neighbourhood Bolton will be our first such community of its kind, one that hopefully provides an antidote to what’s on today's market.
"It'll show how we can take key, underused sites in really well-connected towns like Bolton and write a new chapter for town centre living."
With initial design work happening now, planning applications for the first Neighbourhood Bolton sites are set to be lodged later this year.
Town Fund Projects
New life will be breathed into several key sites and public buildings in the town centre under this scheme. Bolton's historic market will be modernised, with a new food hall added and outdoor area expanded.
Next door to the market the Moor Lane development will transform the 4.5-acre former bus station site into 208 new homes, with green spaces and shops.
Bolton library is also undergoing a major refurbishment, while new paving and benches are being added along Ashburner Street. The site of the former Odeon Cinema will be transformed into a new green space, named Elizabeth Park in honour of the late Queen.
Some £7m is being spent on improving the public areas around Black Horse Street, while the council-owned Wellsprings office building will undergo a £7m renovation to create an innovation hub attracting digital and creative industries to the town.
Bolton council leader Martyn Cox said: "Anyone visiting Bolton town centre will notice a number of significant construction projects are well underway as the council delivers on its regeneration masterplan.
“Individually each of these projects is an exciting opportunity for Bolton, but taken together they represent a wider vision to make our town a more vibrant and exciting place to live, work and visit.
“However, this is just the start and we look forward to more work beginning in 2023 and beyond.”
New Jubilee centre
A new £6m day centre and swimming pool in Bolton is set to open in March 2023. The relocated Jubilee Centre, which has been dubbed the 'jewel in the crown' for Bolton's care sector, is set to open next year.
The Jubilee, a day-care centre with a hydrotherapy pool for adults and young people with learning and physical disabilities, is being built at the former site of Firwood Special School. It will replace the existing Jubilee Centre, on Tennyson Street, Halliwell, which was built in 1983 and has been deemed unsuitable for future use.
The centre is operated by Bolton Cares, the council-owned adult social care company. Officials from Bolton Cares say the vision for the centre was 'a state-of-the-art day centre with hydrotherapy pool for adults with learning and physical disabilities, young people with autism, and young people with disabilities who have left school and are transitioning to adulthood'.
They added: "It will be a non-institutional, vibrant, light, airy, modern, warm, friendly, varied, technically up to date, acoustically sensitive and have high-value finishes with the wow factor. A place that doesn’t look like a day centre has an ambience of calm and purpose."
Hulton Park Ryder Cup golf course and 1,036 homes
This development will only go ahead if Bolton is awarded the Ryder Cup sometime in the 2030s. In October, a planning inspector approved plans for a Ryder Cup golf course and 1,036 homes at the country park in Bolton.
The vast development scheme also includes a hotel and what developer Peel describe as 'a hub of inclusive golf' for the UK. Previous proposals for Hulton Park, close to Westhoughton, were approved by Bolton Council in 2018 and the UK Secretary of State in 2020 and remain in place.
However, in February, going against the advice of their own planning officers, the council's planning committee unanimously refused a revised plan submitted by landowner Peel, which contained what they claim 'enhanced proposals'. Peel claim Hulton Park would be restored and opened-up for community access for the first time in its 700-year history, delivering 15km of new and improved public walking and cycling trails.
Peel said they also had the support of The University of Bolton and Bolton College, Greater Sport, CBI North West, the Greater Manchester Chamber, Marketing Manchester, and Bolton Wanderers FC.
Horwich health centre
A long awaited new 24-hour health centre for Horwich is set to be built after planning was approved in 2022. The new healthcare facility, on the site of the former leisure centre, will replace three existing medical practices in Horwich, which have been considered to be no longer fit for purpose.
The centre is set to 'deliver primary care to Horwich residents in a more integrated, joined up manner' and 'support the shift in services from hospital to community settings'. The building would include a pharmacy and would officer a wide range of medical facilities and services.
The health centre will replace three existing medical practices, Horwich Clinic on Jones Street, Pike View Medical Centre on Albert Street and The Market Surgery (Bolton Community Practice) on Chorley New Road.
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