A CASINO and bingo complex in Bolton town centre has been given the go-ahead amid accusations that councillors washed their hands of the decision.

A government inspector gave permission for the £8 million plan for a Mecca Bingo and a Grosvenor Casino inside the old Sainsbury's building in Flash Street, Bolton.

It was left to the inspector because councillors failed to make a decision within two months.

Liberal Democrat councillor David Wilkinson said the council must have known the decision would be taken out of its hands if it kept deferring the application by Berkshire based The Rank Group.

And by allowing a third party to decide, he said, it meant the local authority could distance itself from the decision -- knowing the go-ahead could upset residents.

More than 60 objections were lodged against the scheme by neighbours who believe the casino will destroy their peace and quiet. Tenants living in the 81 flats at Hargreaves House in nearby Trinity Street said a casino would cause disruption.

Cllr Wilkinson said: "I wouldn't like to live next to it. It probably would have been better for the committee to have gone straight ahead and said this isn't good enough."

He said it was "convenient" the council would now be able to say it had not approved the plan if the casino proves unpopular.

Bolton Council Planning Committee chairman Cllr Prentice Howarth said: "I don't want people to think that we made this decision. We haven't. It has been approved on appeal which is nothing to do with us."

Jean Key, chairman of the Hargreaves House Residents' Association, said: "I am flabbergasted. I would have thought that it would be a lot more appropriate for the council to have made this decision rather than the inspector.

"After all, it is our town. It is the casino part of the application that we mind."

The casino and bingo hall will create 85 jobs and will be one of the first sites in the country to combine both forms of gambling at one location. The casino will be Bolton's second, joining Stanley's, in Bridge Street.

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The Rank Group, based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, appealed to the Secretary of State on the grounds of "non-determination" of its application by Bolton councillors after eight weeks.

Cllr Nick Peel, vice chairman of the planning committee, said: "What we wanted to do was bring Mecca in on the Town Centre Strategy.

"Perhaps they could have been led to consider an alternative town centre location and perhaps the Sainsbury's site could have been used for something else."