1 day Ago
Bolton lost more than 1,000 “active businesses over just two years, a meeting has heard. The figures were drawn from Bolton’s Council Performance Dashboard, which keeps track the borough’s progress in various ways. A recent Bolton Council deputy leaders meeting heard how this prompted questions about plans to commercialise the town centre.
Cllr Adele Warren, of Breightmet, said: “As of yesterday at cabinet, there’s been a decrease of active businesses in Bolton of over 1,000 since 2021. “So, it’s just how realistic is that going to be and what support will be in place to encourage businesses to come to the town centre?” Plans are expected to help revive the town centre (Image: Anthony Moss) She added: “Because it’s extremely challenging for businesses at the moment as well with their national insurance contributions, minimum wages and everything like that as well.” The findings, drawn from the dashboard, show there were 11,450 active businesses across the borough in 2023 compared to 12,475 in 2021 sparked concern at a recent council meeting.
This also left the borough with the lowest number of businesses since 2018, when there 11,695. The closures over those years came alongside well known high street names to leave Bolton over 2023 including Marks and Spencer and Wilko on Deansgate. Conservative Cllr Warren had previously raised concerns about this at a council cabinet meeting earlier the same week.
In response to Cllr Warren’s points, council assistant director of development and regeneration Paul Whittingham said several measures had been planned to boost the borough’s economy. He said this included a report on bringing markets and other facilities into the town , which would create extra funding . Mr Whittingham said: “In the interim without that report being in place we can commission local markets as we do in Victoria Square to start getting footfall into the town centre .
” ALSO READ: More than 1,000 businesses open and close ahead of scheme to 'repurpose' town centre ALSO READ: Final store closes as Crompton Place to shut for good ALSO READ: Popular Bradshawgate pub set to close after 190-year era He said that the council would be able to make use of financing from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Mr Whittingham said that plans for digital screens in the town centre would also help to bring in more income from advertising which would help create a maintenance fund. He said: “So that if there’s maintenance works that need to be done to improve the town centre and improve the public realm in the town centre then we’ve got a pot of money to do that.
“So, it’s a mix of different features that will enable that budget saving to be achieved.”.
