A CIVIC trust has spoken out against plans to transform the former site of Bolton’s bus station.

Bolton and District Civic Trust are describing the plans for Moor Lane, to build more than 200 homes – a mix of houses and flats – in and around the former Moor Lane bus station, as a “massive missed opportunity”.

The plans, to be managed by Bolton at Home, were submitted to the council earlier this month with the civic trust quickly speaking out against them.

Richard Shirres, trust chairman, said: “An exclusively social housing scheme is the wrong solution for this most prestigious town centre site. If you add together approved or ‘pending’ housing applications, there are something like 1,000 public and private apartments ‘in the pipeline’.

“But where are the matching social and environmental measures to make Bolton town centre a place where people actually want to live?

“There is already a large social housing scheme approved for Central Street, again without any supporting facilities. To produce the same again on Moor Lane would create an over-emphasis on this type of housing stock in the town centre. We need to attract a broader demographic.

“The building design is bland and seeks to use variations in brick colour as the only way to highlight the non-descript building blocks. Taking out the unnecessary access roads and creating a traffic-free, ‘green’ environment should have been the main starting point for any scheme on this site. It would have made such a difference to the outcome.

“The whole scheme could be so much better, so much more imaginative. As it is, it is a massive missed opportunity which, if it goes ahead in this form, will be regretted for years to come.”

Mr Shirres says architects should have been given a “clear 21st century urban design brief” for the scheme, which the trust says should be rejected by planners.

A public consultation recently took place into the plans, attracting a mainly positive response.

A spokesman for developers FSG Moor Lane Bolton Developments Limited and Bolton at Home said: “Given the high levels of positive feedback received throughout the consultation, FSG Moor Lane Bolton Developments Limited and Bolton at Home believe that these proposals will be welcomed by the majority of the local community in Bolton.”

A decision is expected on the planning application in November.