MORE than 250 people attended a rally at the Reebok Stadiumto back a bill aimed at saving community shops, post offices and services.

But Bolton-west MP and Local Government and Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly was not among them last night, sparking criticism from campaigners behind the Sustainable Communities Bill.

Local Works, a coalition of 25 national organisations backing the bill, had asked Ms Kelly to speak at the meeting, offering her nine dates in October and November, then any date in January, February or March.

Campaigners displayed a poster at the meeting pointing out she had effectively turned down 99 dates.

Ron Bailey, the coalition's national organiser, told of his "extreme disappointment" that Ms Kelly had not attended.

"She is the only MP to have refused to attend such a meeting," he told the audience, which included local mayors, councillors, residents and organisations such as UNISON and Friends Of The Earth.

Mr Bailey said the private members' bill aimed to reverse the problem of "ghost town Britain" and the loss of facilities such as post offices, pubs, shops, doctors' surgeries and bus services.

He said politicians had not been given the power to do so by the Government and called on local people to decide how their communities are developed and conserved.

"People are fed up with consultations in which their views are rejected by Whitehall," he said.

Mr Bailey said the bill would change that and force the Government to act upon community feedback.

Susan Williams, Conservative party prospective Parliamentary candidate for Bolton-west, who will challenge Ms Kelly at the next General Election, told the meeting: "This bill would address some of the decline in town centres that is of concern to so many people.

"It would address the problems of crime by breathing life back into communities and give places like Westhoughton more control over excessive house building and corresponding traffic problems."

Horwich borough and town councillor and Bolton's Liberal Democrat group leader, Cllr Barbara Ronson, said: "This bill will put the interests of local people to the forefront of policy making."

Ms Kelly had initially told The Bolton News that she could not attend because of diary pressures.

But she yesterday said it would have been "inappropriate" to attend while her department is involved in "delicate negotiations" with the bill's sponsors.

She said that although the bill complimented rather than duplicated her own Local Government White Paper, which shares similar aspirations about devolving power, it would not give town halls as much freedom.

"We will see what bits we can adopt because the bill as a whole is not workable," she added.

The bill has cross-party support from about 400 MPs.