A SHOWMAN has hit out after council bosses failed to find a new home for his fairground community's 40 families.

Henry Hill said that despite paying council tax, Showmen's Guild families lived in "terrible conditions" on land at Mill Hill Industrial Estate rented from Bolton Council.

Showmen put on the Cheadle Square fair in Bolton town centre and operate the Victoria Square carousel.

But Mr Hill said around 200 people in mobile homes off Mill Street, Windley Street and Lodge View, faced overcrowded, unhealthy conditions.

He said the community had put up with poor air quality for nearly 30 years while living alongside gas, paint and engineering works, and a railway line.

Mr Hill's plans to move the families onto land he owns next to the Firwood Industrial Estate, off Thicketford Road, Top o' th' Brow, were refused by councillors last April amid complaints from residents.

He decided not to appeal the decision after being assured the council would try to find an alternative site.

But the council has now written back to say it has been unable to find any suitable land.

Mr Hill, whose father and grandfather have led Bolton's showmen community since 1901, has now written to neighbouring councils including Salford, Wigan and Tameside for help.

"I do not really want to leave Bolton but we can't carry on the way we are," he said.

"We are living in the dark ages on a grotty piece of land on an industrial estate and there are a lot of elderly people and children here.

"I have been given false promises by the council and wish I had appealed against their decision last year."

A Bolton Council spokesman said the council was not legally obliged to find the showmen somewhere to live but added: "Council officers have carried out an extensive assessment of the suitability of alternative council-owned land for Mr Hill.

"However, we haven't been able to find a suitable site which would meet his needs."

The size and layout of sites has proven a barrier to a move because of the need to acommodate fairground vehicles, he said.