YOU own an empty mill worth £1.5 million and want to grab the attention of potential buyers, so what do you do?

For successful businessman John Blackburn, the solution was straightforward — put a huge banner on the roof reading Mill For Sale.

And though the former underwear production factory in Lower Bridgeman Street has still not been snapped up, Mr Blackburn had encountered no problems with his unusual sales technique — until now.

Ten months after the sign went up, Bolton Council has taken Mr Blackburn to task after a mystery member of the public made a formal complaint.

Mr Blackburn has now applied to the council for permission to keep the sign, which is 17m off the ground and is about 1.5m tall and 12m wide.

He said: “It’s a bit of a mystery to me why it’s caused this fuss after so long, but then we never intended to upset the council and we were happy to put in the application.

“It’s a big building and we think it would be a prized asset to some developers.

“I think it would be good as apartments, possibly aimed at the student market as there has been a lot of success with that in the town centre.”

The building, called Globe Works, used to be called the Glove Hosiery Works.

It was built in 1884 and rebuilt in 1929 by Hodgkinson and Gillbrand, which made knitted and crocheted hosiery.

The firm moved to Fletcher Street in 1972 and since then, other companies have run a variety of firms there, though it has been empty for at least two years.

A Bolton Council spokesman said: “We received a complaint from a member of the public about the sign.

“We contacted the owner and advised that the sign did not have advertisement consent.

“The owner has now submitted an application to retain the sign and a decision will be made on the application in due course.”

The council is aiming to make a decision about the sign by November 7.