BOLTON'S run-down bus station toilets are to get a £215,000 revamp.

Work on the scheme will begin in March and will take around three and a half months to complete.

The announcement comes just 10 months after the then ruling Liberal Democrat party closed the toilets down, but bowed to pressure from a Bolton News campaign and reopened them.

Council leader, Cllr Cliff Morris, said: "When the last Lib-Dem council in Bolton announced they wanted to close these toilets, the Labour group committed itself to reversing any such move.

"Thankfully following a campaign by the Bolton News, the Lib-Dems were forced to shelve their plans.

"Upon coming to power last May, we immediately started negotiations with the GMPTA to look at a long term solution to these important facilities, and I am delighted that we are now ready to start work." The Bolton News' Give Us Back Our Loos campaign was launched last April after the Moor Lane toilets were closed.

The male, female and disabled toilets will be closed while refurbishment takes place but a temporary portaloo will be provided and alternative facilities will be sign-posted.

The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) will fund around 60 per cent of the cost with the remainder paid for by Bolton Council using a Government transport grant.

Cllr Nick Peel, Bolton's GMPTA spokesman, added: "Both the council and the GMPTA feel that the work required is far more than a simple lick of paint' - we want a really good job doing.

"I believe that the travelling public will be very happy with the results of the refurbishment.

"Moor Lane Bus Station is one of the busiest in the county, and it was simply unacceptable to leave these important facilities as they were - or worse - to close them."

Lib-Dem environment spokesman, Cllr Roger Hayes said: "I wish the GMPTA had offered the same opportunities to us.

"Labour closed many public toilets in Bolton during the 1980s and 1990s. We listened to residents and re-opened the Moor Lane toilets."