I AM appalled to hear the news that the owners of the Theatre Church in Seymour Road have submitted plans to demolish this wonderful building and build houses.

The Theatre Church has been home to a number of charitable organisations, including the Children’s Amateur Theatre Group, or CATS.

I have seen some of the plays from this group when my daughter was a member and subsequently and they are truly professional and achieve great things.

Some of their children have gone on to tread the boards in the West End.

When the Methodists choose the greedy route (£500,000, instead of the £300,000 raised by the theatre groups), it clearly demonstrated a group of people who did not understand their own Christian principles.

These choose greed and wealth over doing the Christian thing and I hope they can live with that.

The new owners apparently wanted £70,000 a year from each of the groups and, of course, they could not afford this.

This was clearly part of the new owners’ plans, as it would be easier to pretend that they had bought it for wedding functions, but really wanted it for housing all along.

I am hoping the council is willing to step in and prevent a irreversible tragedy.

The council has a duty to preserve this building and return it to its former use as a theatre church.

Sadly, I am afraid that I expect that the council will approve this and prove that those with money really have the power, and that the council doesn’t care about the arts, the ordinary person and the nurturing of our youth.

Let’s see if the council will stand up and support the people of Bolton.

Alan Hamer Catterall Crescent Bolton