CAMPAIGNERS who want to see Bolton's Palais de Danse restored to its former glory are to explore the possibility of applying for Listed status.

Supporters of the dance hall-turned-nightclub on the corner of Bridge Street and St George's Road in the town centre held a meeting on Wednesday evening to discuss their next steps.

They fear site owner The Moorgarth Group – the property firm behind the revamp of the Market Place Shopping Centre – wants to demolish the iconic Arts Deco venue to take advantage of the sizeable plot.

Maggie Gallagher, of Darcy Lever, who set up the Save Our Bolton Palais de Danse campaign and launched an online petition that has 3,000 names, said: "The meeting was to try to find a way to stop it being demolished. It's crying out to be renovated and restored."

Fellow chief campaigner Louise Westhead said: "We don't want the council destroying Bolton. We don't want all these new buildings.We want to keep the older buildings — and the tradition.

"Our children are not going to learn what Bolton meant to their parents or their grandparents."

Bernard Cromarty, a Bolton folk musician and radio producer, said he hoped the saving of the Stockport Plaza on the other side of Greater Manchester could prove a template for how the Palais de Danse could be protected and revived.

He said: "The Stockport Plaza theatre back in 1999 was in the same situation as the Palais.

"It had been a cinema and bingo hall and then became derelict and they were talking about pulling it down.

"But campaigners applied to English Heritage for Grade II Listed status, which is what we can do with the Palais.

"They set up a trust, mostly run by volunteers. The Plaza is now it's former glory again from 1972.

"The most important thing is getting that listing."

Mr Cromarty said the fact the Palais is actually several years older than Stockport Plaza stands in its favour when it comes to convincing the heritage assessors.

Mrs Gallagher and the other meeting attendees decided to look in to setting up some form of steering committee and to examine both applying for Listed status for the Palais de Danse and establishing a building preservation trust.

The next meeting of the campaign group will be announced in due course.