IN the recent economic gloom, we've become accustomed to hearing about jobs lost. So, the news from Sainsbury's today is a real shot in the arm for Bolton.

Not only is the shopping giant hoping to boost local jobs by an extra 200 by moving its existing Moor Lane store to the site on Crook Street where Hick Hargreaves is situated. But 140 manufacturing jobs at the town's famous engineering firm would also be saved with a move to another site.

We certainly hope that the plan goes through as this is excellent news for the area in general and the town centre in particular.

Not only do we end up with a bigger store with more jobs for local people, but we will retain the historic links with a respected old Bolton firm which stretches back over 170 years to boost trading confidence.

Hick's, which has had over 100 redundancies in the last year, will retain its current workforce, and the move will give the company better employment prospects in the Millennium.

It is vitally important to keep high-profile names like Sainsbury's in the town centre when so many are going out of town because Bolton needs to retain a solid retailing profile. The freeing of the current Sainsbury's site could also boost plans plans to revamp the Water Place, creating a "family quarter" for this part of the town centre.

We look forward to this scheme coming to fruition - a plan that, certainly on first sight, seems to offer nothing but good news.

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