AMBITIOUS £1 billion plans to transform Bolton town centre have moved a step closer to fruition.

Town hall chiefs have now been given the formal go-ahead to borrow £100 million that Bolton Council will contribute to the project.

The council’s cabinet voted yesterday to allow the local authority to borrow the £100 million over a 50-year period to help kick-start different development schemes.

Cllr Cliff Morris, the council leader, said: “It is excellent news that the loan has now been authorised.

“We are getting a lot of interest from builders and other people and we are very much looking forward to taking the project forward.”

Town hall bosses have reassured residents that taking out the loan will mean that no public services will face cuts as a result of the masterplan scheme.

The loan will be paid back in yearly instalments, made using the annual Manchester Airport dividend — which currently stands at £4.5 million — and a dividend from the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation which the council also receives every year.

At current interest rates, the council would pay back £2.3 million per year.

The masterplan — which the council has spent several months drawing up — is designed to give the town centre a more concentrated retail core and to bring empty and brownfield sites back into use as housing.

The first area expected to be redeveloped is Church Wharf, after 500 new homes were earmarked for an area running along the River Croal, between River Street and Bank Street.

A transformation of the ‘Trinity Gateway’ is also a key part of the plan.

This includes the redevelopment of the former Wayne Walker meat store.

Other sites at all corners of the town centre that form part of the scheme, the total cost of which is expected to reach, are expected to be revealed in the coming weeks and months.