ONCE again, more grandiose schemes for Bolton.

Over the past 40 years plans for the town have grown exponentially and none have reached fruition without modification to the point of insignificance: remember the 17-storey block of flats at Astley Bridge, with penthouses; the linear park from Horwich to Bolton Town Hall, or the climbing wall on the end of the flats on Marsden Road.

Bolton is not the place for a cafe society or tree-lined walkways along the banks of the River Croal as it passes through the town - or cool, marble seats on the Town Hall Square for that matter.

It does not have the climate. How many times has the open-air theatre in Moss Bank Park been used in the past 40 years?

When will the town's management read the bottom line of all these schemes where it states,"subject to EEC funding, lottery funding", ie: somebody else paying for it, and, of course, nobody ever does.

The town council describe the existing buildings as an eclectic mix; this is a euphemism for a hotch-potch rapidly declining to the level of a third world country with shabby shops, dirty streets and drink-fuelled night life - a cultural quarter, I don't think so. Please,just go back to basics and provide a toilet or two (one on the station platform would be nice).

The artist impression shows cars parked on the street next to the glass and steel housing development - one of the two pedestrians must be a traffic warden!

Good luck with it though, I live in hope.

D G Connor

Bolton