IT comes as no surprise that following the departure of BHS, Beale's Department store is closing.

What is surprising is that it has taken them so long to do so because the store must have been operating at a loss during the last few years.

The problem is not the cost of parking because people still go into Manchester to shop despite the extortionate parking charges there.

The type of customers who would shop at Beale's do not come into the town centre because the rest of the shopping experience is so poor so they are not going to go into town just to shop at one store.

I suspect that the only contender to fill this iconic building will be Primark who did the same thing in Manchester when they took over the famous Lewis's store. It would be terrible if they took over the Beale's store and did the same thing.

Stephen Young, Director of Place, says that council chiefs are to meet bosses at Crompton Place to discuss the way forward. Once again the Council is tinkering round the edges. Keith Davies, the former Director of Development and Regeneration, had the right idea with the proposed major retail development at Central Street but failed to achieve it. Cllr Morris still refuses to tell us why the Central Street Development did not go ahead.

The fact is that unlike other towns, Bolton Council failed to produce a major retail development before the recession. They missed the boat so that when the recession came, they did not know what to do. They have been so busy with schemes to protect the vulnerable and other schemes to catch votes to remain in power that they failed to notice that the town centre was falling down around them. Meanwhile, they have wasted money tarting up the town with such schemes as new paving, new shop fronts in Newport Street, a children's play area, etc.

The reality is that the Council has allowed the town to become so run down that developers are not interested. Nothing will change whilst the electorate keep voting Labour back into power so the majority of the public must be happy with that.

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