'If there are nice bars, restaurants and food outlets, how can young people afford to use them?'

It's the last knockings for the Crompton Place shopping centre, with its demolition set for next year.

Almost completely vacant, the huge complex, which was the beating heart of the town's retail space for more than 50 years, is now a sorry sight.

Bolton council, who bought Crompton Place for around £15m in 2018, want to build a more attractive area and hope to see a mixed catalogue of uses for the vast site which faces the epic Victorian splendour of the town hall and nearby Le Mans Crescent.

To see planning applications; traffic and road diversions and layout changes; and more, visit the Public Notices Portal HERE

The demolition process, set to begin in early 2026 and take around a year, will leave in its wake a massive empty plot facing Victoria Square

The scale of the cleared ar