A COLOURFUL plan to repaint shop fronts in Newport Street has been scrapped after shoppers compared it to children's TV show Balamory.

The scheme, which has been likened to the brightly coloured houses of the CBeebies programme, was one of a number of options put forward by designers — but has now been shelved.

The council said it has spoken to shop owners and businesses and found that they did not like the council's "brand colours" idea, instead preferring an alternative scheme featuring a “palette of neutral colours” that was put forward by architects.

The brand colours plan, if it had gone ahead, would have resulted in the shops being painted bright colours including red, orange, lilac, green, pink, blue and yellow.

The plans form part of a £3 million project to revitalize Newport Street, with the council aiming to create a “seamless and open” link between the new £48 million transport interchange and Victoria Square.

Within the plans, the council has set aside a £2 million fund for new shop frontages, including “bolt-on” frames that will be attached to the shops to provide a more consistent and “uniform” look along the street.

The self-contained frame will incorporate a new shutter system, lighting and signage.

A £1 million pot is also being spent on improving the street itself to fund new paving, seating, street lights and trees.

The original trees from Newport Street have already been removed and, over the next few weeks, the council will begin stripping the street of its current lights, benches and paving.

The regeneration work is then expected to start in earnest in the summer.

Speaking about the chosen colour scheme, Bolton Council’s cabinet member for development and regeneration, Cllr Akhtar Zaman, said: “This route is very important to us and it is vitally important that we get the development absolutely right.

“We had a number of options and we consulted with business and shop owners and they came back to us.

“When you want to do something like this you come up with all sorts of options and at the end of the day you don’t want to do anything that doesn’t fit with what people want — so it is crucial that people’s views are listened to and taken on board — and that is what we have done.”

While the brand colours scheme was compared to both Balamory and, in another children's story reference, Noddy’s homeland of Toytown by Bolton shoppers, it appears that business bosses were happy with the idea.

Wasim Azmi owns the Athletic Sports store in Newport Street, where he has been based for the last six years.

He said: “In the original plans I didn’t know exactly which colour my shop front would have been, so that would have been good to know.

“But in general I do think it was a good idea to paint each shop a different colour like they suggested — I hope neutral doesn’t mean that the shops are all going to be the same colour.

“I am happy with the overall scheme to regenerate Newport Street — it is something that they have to do because this is the main walking route into the town centre and it should look good.”

Carl Brown is the manager of Brighthouse in Newport Street.

He said: “I think that the original colours looked good, but the neutral colours will be good too — I am just looking forward to the work starting.

“The development is a great thing for the street, which currently looks a bit tired, and when it is finished and the interchange opens, it will be great for our business.”