REGARDING the proposed redevelopment of Bolton's Market Hall.

I wasn't aware of the notion of such a massive and preposterous upheaval as this until I saw the front page of the Bolton Evening News on Friday, September 10.

How the idea of making the inside of the Market Hall into a shopping arcade like Crompton Place has got into someone's head just baffles me.

Once again, planners are considering sucking all the individuality out of one of Bolton's greatest assets.

If stores would like to move into Bolton and create identikit retail outlets, perhaps they would like to move into Crompton Place, as there are quite a number of vacant shops there. The Swan Hotel could even be redeveloped as shops, as Bolton has far too many bars these days and it is now hardly viable.

There are all sorts of possibilities for accommodating new businesses, but I would say that ruining the inside of the Market Hall is the least attractive of the whole lot.

Bolton occasionally holds Victorian Street Market events to replicate what the Market Hall was like up until a point a number of years ago - attractive and quaint, totally functional and friendly to smaller businesses which could never consider larger, individual premises.

Where can I sign the petition?

Ian Edmundson

Mossfield Road

Farnworth