TRIBUTES have been made after a former mayor, who welcomed the Queen and Prince Philip to town in 1988, died on his 90th birthday.

Brian Allanson, of New Hall Lane, Heaton, died at Bolton Hospice after battling a long-term illness.

Mr Allanson represented the Heaton and Deane cum Heaton wards between 1966 and 1994 and was mayor in 1988/89.

He was mayor at the time when Bolton was celebrating its 150th anniversary of becoming a borough and when the Queen and Prince Philip visited the town on December 1 1988.

Cllr John Walsh was a neighbour of Mr Allanson and said he shared a whisky with him on several occasions.

He said: "I knew him for well over 50 years. We go back a long way. We had connections through the church as well as politics.

"He was a great neighbour and we shared the odd whisky.

"Brian was a true gentleman. He always worked hard as a councillor for the people he represented across Bolton.

"He was always kind and very generous, but equally he was firm in his values and what he believed. He always took pride in his work.

"Brian went about everything in a kind manner."

Mr Allanson was educated at Church Road Primary School, Bolton School, Bolton Technical College and Manchester College of Science And Technology.

He was a structural engineer and worked for John Booth and Sons and AB Steelwork.

Cllr David Greenhalgh, leader of Bolton Conservatives, said: "Brian was a well-respected and much admired councillor, not only among the residents of the Deane-cum-Heaton Ward, whom he served with great dedication, but also among the wider Bolton family, and across the political divides.

"He will be sadly missed by all those who had the good fortune to know or work alongside him, and on behalf of the current Conservative Group and former colleagues, send my deepest condolences to his family."

His wife Mavis died in 2013 aged 84. He leaves behind sons Peter, Mark and Roger.