TOWN hall boss David Greenhalgh has been banging the drum for the borough with international investors over breakfast at Ten Downing Street.

Cllr Greenhalgh spent Monday in London with Bolton Council's chief executive Tony Oakman seeking cash from major global players to regenerate the town.

Cllr Greenhalgh started at Number 10 meeting international financiers and developers over breakfast with four other local authority bosses to explain why Bolton was the place to invest their money for the future.

The Tory politician then attended the MIMPM UK Summit, chaired by BBC star presenter Fiona Bruce, which brought together major global property developers in London’s Old Billingsgate to set out the town’s stall.

Cllr Greenhalgh finished the day with a Department of Trade and Industry dinner hosted at the Foreign Office’s swish Central London venue Lancaster House.

He and Mr Oakman met a range of UK and international investors including from Hong Kong, China, South Korea and elsewhere in the Far East.

Cllr Greenhalgh said: “We made some very useful contacts for Bolton who have promised to visit us to see first hand the opportunities we have for investors and developers. It is vitally important that we get out there and sell the borough and its potential with confidence and enthusiasm.

“It’s fantastic that government is positively seeking to divert that overseas investment, which would previously have automatically been earmarked for London, into the regions, and into towns like ours.

“We were presenting Bolton as uniquely placed for investment between Manchester and Lancashire – city and countryside – with a council committing money itself to enable investment.”

Bolton North-East Labour MP Sir David Crausby said: “Certainly Bolton needs investment. I wish Cllr Greenhalgh all the best. The borough needs certainty and sustained support from the government.”