A furious row has erupted between councillors over the decision to bid for a new national transport body to base its headquarters in Bolton town centre.
Last year, transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed that Great British Railways’s head office would be based outside of London. He also announced a competition to decide the location.
Bolton Council has now formally submitted a bid to the Department for Transport. However, a member of the Horwich and Blackrod First Independents party, who have three members, has accused the council’s Conservative leader Coun Martyn Cox of a ‘betrayal’ of the people of Horwich and accused the Conservatives, with whom his party has a working arrangement to help keep them in power, of making ‘disastrous decisions’.
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Coun David Grant, who believes any bid for the head office should have been based at the former loco works in Horwich, said he would be supporting moves by the town council there to withdraw support for the bid. He accused the Tory leadership of ‘hijacking’ the idea for a bid from a member of Horwich’s town council.
Council leader Martyn Cox said a move to withdraw support by the town council would ‘predjudice every ward in this borough’. He called it ‘one of the most disgraceful acts that I’ve ever heard of’.
Speaking at a meeting of the full council, Coun Grant, said: “I speak on behalf of hundreds if not thousands of Horwich residents when I say this is nothing short of a Conservative betrayal. Nothing you have done in your approach to this bid for the Great British Railways has been open honest and it’s certainly not been transparent.
“It is my opinion that you have intentionally written a bid for failure. Knowing you had to be seen to be doing something but have no intention of really competing. You are also required to demonstrate public support which you clearly do not have. The people of Horwich are outraged.
“You say elected members are in support fo the bid, no we are not. Neither myself or other Horwich councillors have been consulted.
“We now know when you say elected members what you really mean is your cabinet cabal who are bouncing from one disastrous decision to to the next, seemingly clueless to public opinion. Horwich Town Council will vote on a motion to formally remove support for your bid. You have no support for your betrayal."
To gasps in the town hall Coun Grant then tore to pieces the council expression of interest bid document in front of Coun Cox saying ‘this is what the people of Horwich think of your bid’.
In response, Council leader, Coun Cox, said: “I would point out to you the first person to bring this to my attention was actually my colleague Coun Muslim, others brought it to my attention, officers brought it to my attention and then one of your town councillors chirped in. I had the good grace to thank him for his interest but he was not the first one or second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth person to contact me about this.
“I’m pleased at the thoroughness and logic of the bid we’ve submitted. Bolton town centre is not without railway heritage with early locomotive builders Hargreaves building engines there as early as the 1830s.
“We have an ambition to bring a national institution to this town. If we get this right it will bring jobs for people all over this borough. I don’t normally get outraged but for Coun Grant to say that Horwich Town Council is going to withdraw its support, prejudicing every ward in this borough is one of the most disgraceful acts that I’ve ever heard of.
“He should think twice about that. This is a bid for the whole of Bolton to have a national institution based in this town bringing jobs and investment.”
Bolton’s bid highlights the town’s excellent transport links, the investment being made in regenerating the town centre and the borough’s proud railway heritage. The proposed GBR site, on land already owned by Network Rail next to the transport interchange, would form part of the broader Trinity Quarter regeneration intervention area.
The borough’s train heritage dates back to 1828, when the Bolton and Leigh Railway became just the second public railway in the world. The Horwich Locomotive Works, opened in 1886 and was one of the greatest railway engineering factories in the UK.
The borough has 11 railway stations and Bolton Train Station had 3.2m passengers in 2019/20 making it the busiest in Greater Manchester station outside of the city centre.
Speaking as the bid was launched, Coun Cox, said: “Bolton town centre is the ideal home for an organisation like Great British Railways. We have a proven record of working with partners to deliver projects like this and I am positive the people of Bolton would welcome GBR with open arms.
“Our borough has a proud railway history and basing this new transport body in the town centre would be a fitting tribute to this industrial heritage.”
Announced in May 2021, Great British Railways is described as a ‘single, accountable public body responsible for running Britain’s railways’.
