THE MANAGER of a town centre lapdancing club has called on the council to tackle one of its ‘grot spots’.

Diamonds lapdancing and nightclub is one of the few businesses still open in Bank Street and its manager Sean Doyle says that action needs to be taken after figures show that Bolton has one of the highest rates of empty shops in the country.

With many businesses around Diamonds closed, Mr Doyle is calling on Bolton Council to do something with the street.

He has also accused the council of not having an interest in the town’s nighttime economy.

Earlier this week, Bolton Conservative leader, Cllr David Greenhalgh, said that it was time ‘flatten’ the worst areas of the town, including Bank Street, in order to ‘sort out these grot spots’.

Mr Doyle said: “They (the council) tell me that nothing is going to happen but it would be good for the area and it would be good for us.

“We want something done with the area. It can only benefit our business. We’d like them to tell us what they’re doing. “We’ve suffered over the years. Every year business has slowly declined like the rest of the town centre really.

“We’ve go two different situations. They either try to do up the area and we can do up the premises and go from there or they buy the premises and then we relocate somewhere just as near to the town centre. They can’t, however, just do nothing.”

In 2008, plans were in place to develop the area around Bank Street, with the multi-million pound scheme including a hotel cinema, homes, restaurants and a shopping complex, but this never came to fruition.

The council has says that it is continuing to consider ways of improving the street.

A council spokesman said: “This is an area which we wish to see redeveloped as part of our overall town centre strategy, and, as part of this, we will be speaking to businesses in the area in the future. We have already seen positive regeneration taking place, with work on The Link progressing well.

“Due to the economic downturn the original plans for Church Wharf were not delivered.”

Earlier this week Stephen Young, the council’s director of place, said that the authority was ‘looking at some of the grot spots’ and the potential to carry out demolition of the worst buildings.

The figures identifying Bolton’s empty shops were released by the Local Data Company and showed that almost showed one in four premises are vacant.

Cllr Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton Council, said that the council is doing everything it can to support local businesses and is seeking to find occupants for the town’s vacant shops.