YET another casualty bites the dust in Bolton town centre. The Odeon Cinema/Theatre has been standing in the centre of Bolton for the past 70 years and is now the latest victim of our town planners, suffering the same fate as several of our other much missed landmarks.

Our town centre is rapidly becoming a town with less and less reason for people from other areas to visit it. Apartments will not draw visitors to the town and are not guaranteed to attract residents. Refurbishing the Odeon as a cinema complex and a larger theatre may possibly have had a pulling power in a rapidly declining town centre. Bolton hasn't got a theatre large enough to accommodate the big attractions. We have to visit Manchester, or other large towns or cities in order to do that.

It's all very well town planners saying that the town centre will be a cultural and leisure area, but it takes more than two small theatres, a museum and an art gallery to do that and promote interest. Manchester is fast becoming the cultural and nightlife centre in our area, and if our town planners are not careful, Bolton will become a far less known and visited town. In the evenings there is very little apart from the public houses and restaurants on Bradshawgate to attract people into town. Walking through a town centre full of metal-shuttered or boarded-up shops with a central bus station without any facilities is not a pleasant experience and, because of the yob culture, the older generations avoid it.

Rosalind Horrocks Shelbourne Avenue Bolton