SO the decision has been made and our unique Market Hall is to be transformed into just another shopping mall.

But let's think about this. It will not be just another shopping mall. It will be a shopping mall housed in a unique and beautiful Victorian building. It will, in fact, be a unique shopping mall.

Beautiful old Victorian buildings such as our Market Hall need vast amounts of money spent on them to preserve them and to keep them looking good.

This redevelopment gives us a wonderful opportunity to spend someone else's money to, primarily, upgrade the building and to preserve it for future generations and, secondly, to create a new shopping experience.

To preserve this magnificent building so loved by us Boltonians, and others from further afield, is, or should be, our main aim.

Makeovers that are done from time to time on the ground floor can be changed without spoiling the building.

The decision to allow this development to go ahead, knowing that the alternative was probably to allow this building to fall more and more into disrepair due to lack of money, was the right one.

Brian Derbyshire

Ribchester Grove

Bolton