A new scheme to tackle serious violence will be piloted in the town.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham announced yesterday that an action plan will initially be enrolled across six boroughs.

The aim of the scheme is to work with local communities to ensure that violent crime is prevented.

Bury, Oldham, Salford, Tameside and Manchester will also trial the new plan.

As part of the community-led approach police officers could be reintroduced in schools, where there is a need, enabling the police to build a better relationship with young people.

Victims will also be given a voice with the creation of a 'Victims Champion' in Greater Manchester.

Andy Burnham said: "Enforcement can only go so far, and that is not at the heart of this plan.

"This plan is about a different approach to serious violence, we've learnt from other parts of the country who have taken a public health approach, but we want to take it further and work right with communities.

"What we are proposing is a community-led approach to tackling serious violence.

"Part of that is building serious trust and working with people, we've recently made a commitment to establish a race equality panel in Greater Manchester.

"In September we will publish the first regular quarterly report on race equality in Policing in Greater Manchester across different communities.

"This is important in building trust. But we need to do further than that and work with the voluntary and community sector to develop much more preventative approaches.

"We need to start with communities and build better solutions to tackling serious violence in the long run.

"This is a place-based approach working with communities and all public services to ensure that we can give every young person growing up in Manchester the best possible start to life.

"We want to make sure we've got resilient communities able to support each other and bring down levels of serious crime."

Although the aim across all the pilot boroughs is the same, the approach will be tailored to each local area.

Helen Lowey, Director of Public Health for Bolton said: "It's having that local approach and seeing what's right for Bolton and what's right for the other areas, and what will make a difference to those areas.

"How we can bring in this community led approach and work with all of our partners across Bolton, whether that's private businesses or the public sector.

"It's about listening to out communities and really being unique to those areas.

"What is the support and the assets we can use within these communities and build upon, so we can improve that environment at a local level for our young people in particular."

Ibrahim Ismail from Bolton Solidarity Community Association said: "A lot of the infrastructure is in place in Bolton, there's already really good examples of partnerships working which have been identified.

"With the extra support from Greater Manchester there could be a real impact in terms of making a change to many lives in Bolton.

"There's good evidence of being able to hit the ground running in Bolton."