BOLTON’S councillors are once again playing at being amateur architects.

The Bolton News report of November 15: “Concern over look of futuristic multi-storey” says councillors have instructed the chief planning officer to seek changes to the proposed Bath Street multi-storey car park.

The changes are meant to produce “something more fitting to that part of the Borough”. This is a matter of taste, so I hope our councillors are going to be sensible. One man’s “fitting” is another’s eyesore.

A few minor changes probably won’t matter too much, but I hope they don’t want a neo-Georgian car park with classical details. From what I can see from your report, the Bath Street architects have gone to great lengths to prevent this large building looking slab-like and boring.

I think they have succeeded in producing a design which is lively and interesting and will be an asset. A car park here will certainly be useful. But a minimum of councillor meddling please.

Past history does not bode well. There is a decades-long tradition of Bolton’s councillors interfering in design matters, and the results are poor.

The worst example is the “grey stone” policy. The shops in Victoria Square opposite the town hall, the one on the Newport Street corner, and the replacement for the Commercial Hotel are all, at council insistence, faced in grey stone.

The stated intention being to make the buildings look imposing. They don’t, and have given us a principal square which is drearier than it should be. How much better the square would look with buildings in a variety of different colours and materials. More recently, and proving that nothing has been learned, the courts building and the Job Centre, both on Blackhorse Street also received the grey-stone treatment.

They look really sad, two modern buildings made of steel and concrete, masquerading as traditional, stone-built structures.

I think the successful modern buildings in Bolton (and unlike some of your correspondents I think there are quite a lot) are ones where the architect was not held back. Examples are the Octagon Theatre; the car park next to it in completely different style and materials, both being completely unlike the Civic Centre opposite, but forming a really good-looking group; the Bavarian-style flats in St George’s Road; and the striking modern flats on the other side of that road. There are others.

Some of these schemes were designed by the council’s own staff, on these occasions, thankfully, given a pretty free hand. Councillors should draw the obvious conclusions.

Stephen Ramsden, Breightmet