ANGRY Bolton songwriters say they have been "kicked in the face" by marketing bosses who commissioned the town's new identity song from someone who does not even live in the borough.

Alec Martin, who organises an annual North-west songwriting competition in Bolton to showcase new writers, says he is outraged that home-bred talent was not hired for the job.

Instead the 60-second long song Bolton, Altogether Better," which cost £4,000 to commission, was written by Gateshead-based Jon Craig, who had only ever visited Bolton once.

Mr Martin complains that had Bolton's town centre manager Maria Appleton and her marketing colleagues contacted him he could have put them in touch with a local songwriter who has already written a song about the town - and any number of others willing to have a go.

He said the council-run Arts Forum and the Buskers Ball, which he organises, includes plenty of writing talent who would be proud to put pen to paper for their home town. Mr Martin, of Breightmet Drive, said: "Maria Appleton and her marketing colleagues should know that there are three Buskers Balls at different venues in the town centre which are positively brimming with songwriters who could have written a set of lyrics with more feeling than the, dare I say, pro forma verse of Mr Craig."

Vicky O'Rahilly, of the White Lion pub on Deansgate, which hosts the Buskers Ball each Tuesday, condemned the decision to commission a writer from the North-east.

She said: "It think its outrageous when local songwriters are struggling financially and then £4,000 goes to a man in Gateshead.

"There is nothing personal in the lyrics, that song could be about anywhere - Brighton, Bournemouth, anywhere.

"If you ask me they should have held a competition to find a song for Bolton. "Sadly it's a bit late now." Maria Appleton defended the decision to commission Jon Craig but said she was sad that the project had upset local songwriting talent.

She said: "In retrospect we should have consulted local songwriters, but we were working to a very tight deadline because of a forthcoming television advertising campaign.

"The whole project took just three to four weeks and the writer was given a brief. We are pleased with the result.

"As he was working to a brief, the writer could have been from Bolton, Scotland or Gateshead.

"I am sorry we have upset people and I apologise.

"In future we will try to use local song writers."

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