RESIDENTS of Farnworth were left frustrated after plans for a welcome sign hit another setback.

Kath Gough, chair of the Campbell Community Group, has spent the past seven years asking for a ‘Welcome to Farnworth’ sign for the town.

She asked councillors at the area forum on Thursday when she would be able to view the proposed design, and was told that it was being held for consideration.

Mrs Gough has worked alongside friend, Carole Crawley, to design the sign for Moses Gate that reflected Farnworth’s mill heritage.

The pair claim to have traced the town’s milling history back to the early 1100s.

They briefed the sign’s designers to use a depiction of Horrocks Mill, the Grade II listed site of the former cotton mill in Lorne Street.

The design was mocked up on to three styles of sign and shown to members of the council, who made the decision to hold the project for the time being, the area forum was told.

Mrs Gough said: “We should have something nice and we were promised one sign. We are all trying to be proud of Farnworth and we can’t even put a sign up to welcome people.

"If we can’t say here we are and be proud of it then why should anyone else be proud of it?”

Bolton Council’s response to the query said: “The design and installation has been held, pending consideration of if and how this can best assist in the development of the town centre and possibly similar consideration given to boundary signage at other “gateway” locations.”

Cllr Paul Sanders said: “We want boundary signs and we want welcome signs, but if we spend £2,000 on a sign and have to take it down in 18 months then that’s not very good is it?

“These signs will be very important and it’s important that we get them right.

“We want unified signs across our ward, and if we do this right then we could be the benchmark for signs across the borough.”

Cllr Sanders also said that signage being discussed as part of the town’s multi-million pound regeneration made the decision even more crucial to the councillors.

He encouraged residents to speak up if they had a complaint about the process.

Farnworth was approved as one of Greater Manchester’s Town Centre Challenge towns in 2018, a new initiative to regenerate town centres across the area.

Each borough was asked to nominate a town to be regenerated as part of the scheme.

Greater Manchester has eight principal towns, 20 smaller towns and 50 local and suburban centres.