I WAS very interested to see the image on the front of the Bolton News which I understand represents the view of the Civic Trust as to how the rear of Le Mans Crescent should look in the future.

It would appear that it bears a striking resemblance to the council's own vision image produced some nine years ago and which has been consistently used by the council in town centre presentations and documents and for a large period of that time the image (pictured) has hung on the wall of our Chief Executive's office as a statement of our aspirations for development of that particular area of the town centre.

More importantly, and we have continually made this point, it is this vision that has been a feature of our discussions with the University and the developers as they prepare the design brief for the Academic Village.

What of course this now confirms is that the council's vision for the rear of Le Mans Crescent which has been in place for a number of years is actually aligned with the more recently produced views of the trust. I think it is a shame that representatives of the trust have declined the opportunity to meet council officers since they raised this matter publicly as I believe that we could have had a very useful discussion and quickly allayed some of the trust’s concerns.

Hopefully we can now move forward in a constructive manner to ensure that our aspirations for this area are achieved as part of such a significant development for Bolton. In this respect the council’s offer to meet representatives of the Civic Trust still stands.

Councillor Akhtar Zaman

Cabinet Member for Development and Regeneration

Bolton Council