A PIECE of news surfaced this week that you might just have missed but which is surprisingly important.

Sweetens Bookshop on Deansgate is promising "business as usual" in spite of a demolition threat to make way for a £100 million shopping development.

The old row of buildings opposite Whitakers store is on the edge of the huge scheme to create a giant shopping, retail and leisure development between Deansgate and Bark Street.

It will rejuvenate that part of the town centre and it would be foolish to do anything but welcome such a massive cash investment with all the promise for a brighter future for the town that it offers.

However . . . it is really important for the character of the town that businesses like Sweetens remain.

This is a typical "small but beautiful" bookshop you might pass by but which offers the kind of old-fashioned, personal service that some of the bigger bookshops simply cannot.

Sometimes, it stocks local and regional books that need an outlet but the big boys might not find commercially viable, and it has staff who respond swiftly to requests for all kinds of unusual publications. Like I said, the sort of service you might have got 25 to 30 years ago - and probably still do around the borough - but is is fairly rare centrally in these days of multiples and chain stores.

Bolton town centre used to have many such local independent businesses. Today, not only are there very few left but we are set to lose many more if the Bolton Market Hall plan to bring in high street names and kick out most of the small traders goes ahead as scheduled.

A town can be defined by its shops, especially to visitors who judge its character this way.

No-one wants to hold back a town like Bolton on its practical planning to ensure a healthy commercial and retail future. But the baby is in distinct dange of being chucked out with the bathwater here. Please fight to retain shops like Sweetens. We owe it to the town's past and future.