LIKE many local people, I just don’t understand how the town could lose such a great building as the Seymour Road Theatre Church.

The owners have submitted a planning application to knock down the historic property and build nine houses on the Astley Bridge site. It was originally constructed around 1866 as a school but converted in 1969 to a purpose-built theatre space for local groups.

For more than 40 years, it was a busy centre with hundreds of people regularly using it as a theatrical base and visited by many more. In 2012 the Bolton Methodist Circuit, which owned it, rejected an offer of £300,000 raised by local amateur dramatic groups for one of £500,000 by a commercial venture keen to run it as a wedding venue.

Unfortunately, the current owners say this is not now financially viable due to structural defects and costly repairs and they need to demolish the building instead.

So we are left with the sad situation that yet another local landmark building potentially bites the dust, and the town’s rich seam of amateur theatre loses a possible facility forever.