By Alan Calvert, Industrial Editor A MASSIVE threat to town centre shopping in Bolton and Bury was spelled out in graphic, brutal detail to top business leaders.

Street prostitution, poor parking facilities, and the threat from a £250m shopping centre just 10 miles away could drive a knife into the heart of the town, they were warned.

Retail expert Arnold Wilcox-Wood - the former Regional Manager of Crompton Place Shopping Centre in Bolton said, in effect, that the two towns needed to pull up their socks and act NOW if they were to fight against the £250m Trafford Centre due to open in September, 1998.

Controversially, he welcomed the Centre, its investment, the employment created and its status as a new attraction to the retailing industry in the North-west.

But, he told his audience at the 110th annual dinner of the Bolton and Bury Chamber of Commerce at the Bolton Moat house: "You have got to protect your business, you have got to protect your retailing area, you have got to protect Bolton and Bury."

Mr Wilcox-Wood, who was responsible for Crompton Place for six years before transferring to Liverpool at the end of 1996, also painted a bleak picture of Bolton which upset some listeners.

And he said: "Bolton and Bury will lose trade to the Trafford Centre, but I believe that Bury and Bolton, by taking action now, can minimise the loss."

His simple message was: "We've got to attract the whole family - including dads - to shop in our towns." THE CASE FOR TRAFFORD CENTRE: Mr Wilcox-Wood, who lives in Bury, made these and other points to illustrate the size of the threat:

10,000 car spaces, to be increased to 15,000 in a couple of years, with an impressive parking control system.

All car parks covered by full colour cctv cameras and people employed to tour the car parks helping ladies to load their shopping.

A Trafford Centre mechanical breakdown service which carries out minor repairs free of charge.

No dark corners, everything brilliantly lit and without parking charges.

Two hundred shops, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, health clubs, children's creches, shopmobility, information kiosks and a 1,600-seater foodcourt with its own giant TV screen.

Themed Los Angeles, Chinese, Italian and cruise liner food areas.

Centre to be open from, say, 10am until midnight.

Selfridges to be the main anchor tenant in its first store outside London.

Independent traders to include dentists, doctors and financial institutions.

A coach park to cater for about 70 coaches together with drivers' facilities.

A promotional budget of about £1.7m a year (compared with £30,000 last Christmas in Bolton).

Probable improvements to the adjacent motorway and road infrastructure.

A £90m leisure and sports facility utilising the nearby Manchester Ship Canal for water sports and providing facilities for athletics, fooball and perhaps a small golf course.

"It will be a destination visit in its own right with a significant number of foreign visitors," he said.

And he gave an idea of the sheer size of the new development:

"Take Crompton Place, add it to the Market Place and then throw in the Gate Shopping Centre, add on the newly-extended Marks and Spencer here in Bolton then multiply it by three times and that is the size of the Trafford Centre with 10,000 free car parking spaces - all six miles down the road."

Research showed that Bolton would initially feel a reduction in trade of between 10 and 13 per cent.

Mr Wilcox-Wood outlined other threats from rival attractions in Manchester, Oldham, Wigan and Blackburn etc. And there was also the prospect of more home shopping and shopping on the Internet. BOLTON:FIGHTBACK MEASURES NEEDED Encouraging and providing houses for people to live in the town centres again.

Properly organised and licensed street entertainment.

The introduction of a street cafe society.

Proper use of Victoria Square and Le Mans Crescent, Bolton - currently a "criminal waste of a priceless asset."

Encouraging life to return to town centres after 6pm and making people feel safe. "You will feel safe at the Trafford Centre," Mr Wilcox-Wood said.

A better CCTV system in Bolton.

The covering of streets adjacent to the town centres of Bolton and Bury to improve customers' comfort and encourage the use of street life activity.

A graffiti patrol to tackle flyposting of empty property.

A crackdown on prostitution in Shiffnall Street, Bolton - "rife among parking facilities for staff, customers and visitors."

Proper public toilets to replace those which are "dirty and unattended."

He said: "It is wrong that local authorities are abandoning their obligations to provide these amenities and expecting local business people to provide them."

Proper provision for car-borne shoppers in both town centres.

Bolton or Bury has to be either all open or all closed on Sundays.

"Sunday trade with only half the shops open will result in loss of trade to our competitors."

His overall view was direct: "We are approaching the Millennium - my customers, your customers, have every right to expect decent facilities and if you do not provide them they will go where they are provided."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.