TWO major planning applications to change the face of Bolton will be decided on this week.

Councillors will vote on plans to radically alter two areas of the town centre as part of the council’s £1 billion masterplan.

They are also likely to approve the opening of a new school and temporary buildings to meet an urgent need for demand.

MARY NAYLOR reports.

THE regeneration of Church Wharf will take around 10 years say planners.

If approved contractors will demolish, landscape, rejuvenate and build a new residential area in the heart of the town centre with 352 new homes for Bolton.

Before new homes are built the area will be landscaped and used for public events to encourage people back to Church Wharf, a largely neglected area of the town centre.

READ MORE: Croal Valley plans for 262 homes and 45 parking spaces

A two-part planning application will appear before the planning committee tomorrow afternoon. New pictures to illustrate the application have been published.

The application seeks full permission to demolish the buildings along a stretch of Manor Street and Bank Street bisected by the River Croal.

If approved, developers would mostly flatten Church Wharf, pulling down from the former Dog and Partridge pub on the corner of Manor Street and Folds Road, to 28 Bank Street, the site of the former Late Club.

Buildings along Brown Street and Well Street would also come down, with the exception of Diamond Glass Works and the southern section of Project House.

The United Utilities Pumping House would also be retained.

Full permission is also sought to create a “weathering steel” (COR-TEN steel) footbridge which would join Bank Street to Water Street on the site of what was the Late Club. This work would also include improving the River Croal and its banks aesthetically and environmentally.

A “River Walk” would connect the footbridge all the way to Church Bank, via a public space to be called Foundry Terrace.

The regeneration of Church Wharf is part of Bolton Council’s £1 billion masterplan to overhaul the town centre.

The council has invested £100 million into the project and has been attracting other investment to fund the changes.

The rest of the plans to be decided on tomorrow complement this vision with an outline application for up to nine buildings ranging from two to nine storeys high.

These, the application suggests, would form the basis for the 352 new homes across townhouses and one to four-bedroom apartments.

There would also be opportunity to use some of the buildings for an 80-room hotel, offices and shops, as well as areas for restaurants, cafes or bars.

While the make-up of the retail, leisure and business area could change depending on interest ­— such as a gym instead of shops ­— the site would remain a mostly residential site and could not be changed into a business park for example.

The application has been submitted by Muse Developments Ltd and will be decided by councillors at the meeting at Bolton Town Hall tomorrow at 2pm.