COUNCIL chiefs say they have complete confidence that Market Place bosses will have plans in place to deal with the possible closure of the Debenhams store.

Linda Thomas, leader of Bolton Council, said it would be "a terrible blow" to lose the town centre flagship store if it is confirmed as one of the 50 earmarked for closure across the country. The store has helped drive footfall in Bolton town centre for the past 30 years.

But Cllr Thomas said she was confident that owners, the Moorgarth group, would be ready to meet the challenge.

Cllr Thomas spoke out after the national department store chain announced yesterday that it was slashing 50 of its 165 stores after it had struggled to compete with online retailers and had recorded annual loss amounting to nearly £500m.

Cllr Thomas said reports of the store closures are ‘distressing’. She said: “It’s frightening. First it was House of Fraser and Kendals, and now its Debenhams. It’s distressing news, particularly for all the staff who must be worried about their jobs.

“It is such a large part of the Market Place, and such a prominent store for Bolton, it would be a terrible blow to lose it.

“It’s a pity that it has come to this, but it is such a difficult time for the high street.

“I would hope Bolton is one of the stores that remains open, they’ve done such a good job with the Market Place, and I have great confidence in Moorgarth, who own the centre.

"I have complete confidence in Moorgarth that they will be ready to meet this challenge. I’d be very surprised if they didn’t have something in mind to replace Debenhams if it were to close.

“Of course, we will be monitoring the situation. The council will be supportive and offer as much assistance as we can to Moorgarth and the Market Place, if Debenhams were to decide to leave.

“The collapse of such a big retail chain is a worry for all towns, but we have to stay positive about it and hope that Bolton’s Debenhams is spared.”

But opposition leader Cllr David Greenhalgh said it will take more than positive thinking to avoid a catastrophic blow to the town’s struggling retail sector.

He said: “It would be horrendous news if we were to find out that Debenhams in Bolton was one of the stores earmarked for closure. It’s almost inconceivable after the private investment that has been poured into the Market Place.

"Rumours around the state of Debenhams nationally have been rumbling for a while. We can only hope the council has been proactive at selling the reason why Debenhams should stay in our town.”

Moorgarth were unavailable for comment.

Company chiefs refused to confirm or deny yesterday whether the Market Place store is on the list of those facing the axe.

Instead it said its future will be “focused more on stores in key locations”. A spokesman would not say whether Bolton was considered to be a key location.

The department store said it will be forced to make “tough decisions” over the next five years.

Yesterday it was claimed that staff had been told that the Bolton store, in Market Place, would close within the next 12 months.

But a spokesman for Debenhams said: “Debenhams has not announced the closures of any individual stores today.

“We do not have a list of specific store closures at this point, and we are unlikely to announce closures any time soon.

“This is a long-term proposal, over a period of five years, as we begin to focus more on our stores in key locations.”

Debenhams boss, Sergio Bucher, blamed online shopping for the recent downturn in business.

He said: “It has been a tough year for retail and our performance reflects that. We are taking tough decisions on stores where financial performance is likely to deteriorate over time. It’s no surprise that customers have shifted online, they buy less in store, they buy more online.

“That is the issue we are addressing with our announcement today. We want to have fewer but better stores with a better shopping experience, we want to grow our online business and we want the whole of the organisation to be more profitable.”