A EUROPEAN-STYLE boulevard, a cinema, more offices and homes and extra cafes and restaurants will make up a multi-million pound investment in Bolton town centre.

Council leaders will plough £9 million into the scheme, which it is hoped will see the town transformed into the main office “hub” for the north of Greater Manchester.

One of the key parts of the town centre’s revamp will be a £1 million investment in Newport Street, which has been branded “poor quality” by local authority chiefs.

It will be revamped to make it a more “welcoming” pedestrian route into the town centre, with work due to start in autumn next year and due for completion in early 2015.

A report presented to Bolton Council said: “It is proposed to completely re-design Newport Street to transform it into a modern, European style ‘boulevard’ with clean, minimalist lines and treatments to draw pedestrians into and along it.

“Existing street fixtures will be replaced with new installations to create an aesthetically pleasing, de-cluttered environment that, coupled with some levelling of the surface, will enable pedestrians to move about more freely and provide capacity to better accommodate events and other footfall generating activities.”

The full report is available here: EuropeanBoulevard.pdf

A new 50,000 sq ft office development will abe the first salvo in the multi-million-pound campaign to improve the fortunes of Bolton town centre.

The plans have been put together to combat what the report called “a perfect storm” engulfing high streets, which it blamed on the economic downturn, online shopping and the increasing strength of out-of-town shopping areas such as Middlebrook and the Trafford Centre.

The council has set aside almost £9 million in capital cash over the next two years to fund the strategy, and proposals include reducing the size of the town’s retail area, creating more office space, attracting more people to live in the town centre, creating more leisure activities — including a town centre cinema — and setting aside cash to support “priority occupiers” such as restaurants, cafes, “quality” sandwich shops and independent traders to make use of vacant stores.

The strategy also blamed levels of business rates for town centre problems, as well as “unrealistic rental demands” from what it called “distant landlords” who do not understand the local economy for the town centre’s plight.

A report produced by The Greater Manchester Planning and Housing Commission in March advocated turning Bolton into the main “hub” for office accommodation in the north of Greater Manchester.

And in the report the council said its own surplus buildings should be refurbished and leased out to would-be occupiers.

The authority is already in the midst of a £7 million refurbishment of the town hall in an effort to consolidate its workforce in the town centre and free up more of its buildings.

And it has now agreed terms to dispose of land in the town centre for a new 50,000 sq ft office development for a Bolton firm, although the authority is so far staying tight lipped on the company’s identity for commercial reasons.

Conservative group leader David Greenhalgh raised concerns that shifting the focus of the town’s retail sector to a smaller area could take custom away from the Market Place shopping centre.

He said: “We are moving all the focus and if it doesn’t get some innovative support it could die on its feet.”

Bolton Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris added: “I’ve always understood the town centre is going to be a challenge and we’re looking at a strategy.

“Some of the things are coming on stream at the moment, but we’ve got to make the town centre smaller, we understand that.

“We’re speaking to the owners of the Market Place but we have no control over business rates.

“The government has decided not to lower business rates and we’re trying to do what we can to help businesses.”

Market Place centre manager Rod Neasham said: “We applaud Bolton Council for it's decision to invest in the future of the town centre, and are excited about the key role that Market Place Shopping Centre could play within their strategy.”