A £33 million pound 'prestige' town centre housing development scheme has today been signed off.

Demolition works on Central Street are set to start next month paving the way for 145 dwellings to create a new Bolton town centre neighbourhood.

Bolton Council’s deputy leader Martyn Cox said: “I am delighted to sign off this £33 million development in Bolton town centre.

“It is one of the first of the big developments to get started in the town centre, we expect demolition to works to start in June.”

He added: “Developing on brownfield sites in this way means it takes the pressure of Bolton’s greenbelt land by meeting the government’s mandatory housing allocation without incursion on to green areas.”

Works on the site were expected to get underway last year but the pandemic broke and town hall chiefs say all the funding is now in place – with the council putting forward £2.2M from the £100M Town Centre fund towards the site remediation work, such as the relocation of the existing substation and demolition work.

The Bolton News reported last month the local authority is to receive £3.6 M to carry out remediation work on site so homes could be developed – with Placefirst managing the site, from development to after completion.

Cllr Cox said: “This is what creates affordable housing, each unit will effectively be subsided by £25,000, otherwise they would be out of people’s price range.

“Placefirst are developing the site and will be managing it on completion, so it has a vested interest in the whole development.”

A report by Bolton Council’s director of place, Gerry Brough for the extra £2 M to plug the gap stated: "Although extensive work has been undertaken to develop plans for this brownfield site, public sector intervention is required to close the £5.82m viability gap and to kickstart the development

" Over £1m of funding is allocated within existing budgets for public realm including the rebuilding of the river wall and lower car park and highways works, including the

widening of existing highways, extending and replacing paving.

"The Croal Valley scheme was allocated £3.625m Brownfield Land grant funding on March 26 on the basis of £25,000 per unit, to enable 145 housing units to be delivered.

"The grant funding will enable ground works such as site remediations, demolition, services and drainage works to be undertaken, thereby contributing to the costs of development and reducing the viability gaps."