Out to lunch withbsome Boltonians. And some thoughts about regional boundaries.

 I’ve been out to lunch today with a couple of old friends, former work colleagues. We should have met last Friday but were prevented from doing so by a train drivers’ strike. Of course, there would have been no problem if Bolton, where they both live, were part of the Metrolink tram service. 

Bolton is a place big enough to consider itself separate from Manchester. It has an impressive town hall and library/museum/art gallery. And it certainly used to be a good place to go shopping. Years ago, when I worked in a college thee I organised a student exchange with a school in Malaga. The Spaniards did some research and expected to be coming to a smallish suburb of Manchester and were quote surprised to find a busy town in its own right.  My students were equally surprised when they went to Malaga, expecting a typical tourist seaside place and finding, again, a busy city with a lot of history.

Nowadays, I am told, the centre of Bolton is a rather sad and neglected place. Levelling up has not done much for it by all accounts.

Here’s a letter from a Boltonian to the Guardian newspaper:

“The northern mayors can certainly become part of a regional renaissance (Editorial, 3 March), but there are some big issues that need to be addressed if the north is to really benefit. First, there’s a big democratic deficit in the city-region model of governance. One person is elected mayor, but without being part of a team of elected councillors (unlike the old Greater Manchester county council, abolished by Thatcher). All we have is an indirect accountability through the district leaders. It’s not good enough.

Second, the areas covered by the city-region mayors only include parts of the north. Areas such as east Lancashire, with large and economically deprived towns including Burnley and Accrington, are not in the city region.

Finally, there is an issue of identity with the city regions, outside the cities themselves. In your editorial you referred to Andy Burnham being “in Manchester”, though elsewhere you credit him as being the mayor of Greater Manchester, which has 10 large districts including my own town of Bolton, historically a proud Lancashire town. Bolton has never been comfortable being part of anything calling itself Greater Manchester.

Why not extend the present Greater Manchester to take in much of the historic Lancashire to create a powerful county region (with or without Liverpool city region) – a Greater Lancastria, with a mayor working with democratically elected representatives, and strong devolved powers to put us on a par with Scotland and Wales?
Prof Paul Salveson
Bolton, Greater Manchester”

I rather like the idea of a Greater Lancastria, preferably with Liverpool included. I remember my Southport-resident mother being thoroughly disgusted to find herself in Merseyside and no longer in Lancashire when the county boundaries were rearranged.

Mind you, I know a fair number of people in our own bit of Greater Manchester who would happily revert to being part of Yorkshire! 

My Boltonian friends and I went out to lunch, by the way, at Noi Quattro, an Italian restaurant in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. This is a venue to be recommended. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!