Westhoughton: Regeneration work on town hall set to start

This comes with the Westhoughton District Centre development project gathering pace, with Bolton Council now hoping to put work out to tender in August and begin the early stages by the end of this summer.

Officials hope that the work will be complete by May next year, with major changes possibly coming to Westhoughton Town Hall, which could become home to new services and community groups.

Council cabinet member for regeneration, Cllr Adele Warren, said: “Obviously in terms of the kinds of works that are going to be going on, everything is still on the table.

“We need to get moving, obviously with the cost-of-living crisis everything is going up in price so what we had 12 months ago isn’t necessarily going to be the cost now so procrastination could end up costing us.”

She added: “Everything’s open at the moment, the idea of regeneration is that we need to create the spaces that are going to be sustainable in the future.”

The council was updated about the plans at a meeting of the regeneration committee on July 18.

Detailed design proposals are still being finalised, but Cllr Warren says that she hopes to see a full planning application lodged in November which will set out the proposal in full.

Cllr Warren said: “It’s still up for debate because that doesn’t affect the first phase of the plans, but the final version very much depends on who will want to rent the space.”

Preliminary work on the town hall has included making sure the building is safe and checking for asbestos while other priorities include improving pedestrian links to the town centre, a new car parking strategy, an assessment of future requirements for remodelling Market Street and improvement works to Central Park.

This comes amid ongoing regeneration projects in Bolton town centre over recent months but town hall chiefs have said that “district centres” including Westhoughton, Horwich and Little Lever remain an important part of the overall masterplan.