WHY do you love Bolton?

The reasons why other people love the town are about to be spread all over the borough.

And everyone else in the town is being invited to share the reasons why they love living, studying, working, doing business and visiting here too.

They are being asked to complete the following sentence: ‘I love Bolton because…’

It's all part of a campaign to boost the town's image.

Primary schools will be urged to take part by answering the question and children encouraged to represent what they love about Bolton through drawings and creative writing.

When campaign organisers have collected enough answers, they plan to use them to help build a "strong and celebrated" Bolton identity, ‘This Is Bolton’, that will be recognised by not only residents, but those who live in other parts of the UK and across the world.

The campaign is being co-ordinated by the ‘Big Up Bolton’ group, led by the Bolton Vision Partnership.

Key businesses and organisations already supporting the campaign include Bolton FM, Market Place, the Octagon Theatre, the University of Bolton, Bolton College, Stateside Foods, Carrs Pasties, Bolton Council, The Bolton News, youth charity Xplode and Bolton Community and Voluntary Service.

Bolton Special Olympics cyclist Kiera Byland, who recently won three gold medals in cycling at the Abu Dhabi games, said she was proud to back the campaign.

She said: “I love Bolton because ... it’s my town. I was born here, I’ve grown up here and I want to stay here in my adult life.

“We are lucky we have so much in our town, cinemas, shops, lovely places to eat.

“Bolton College which I attend, has been extremely helpful and flexible when I need to train and I’m competing.”

Dave Singleton, head of the Vision Partnership, said: “We want local businesses and people to get behind this campaign.

“Bolton has so much to offer. We have beautiful countryside, friendly and welcoming people, a great location, outstanding businesses, a growing university group, the Octagon theatre, the world class museum and art gallery, a strong heritage and stunning architecture.

“We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming town.”

Dave added: “This first phase is all about engaging with people to find out what they love about living, working studying, visiting and investing in Bolton. We want them to share all the brilliant qualities of the entire borough, so we can be loud and proud about Bolton.

“Highlighting the positives is a great way to attract business and further investment and make people feel good about the place they live.

“We felt it was vital that we listened to what the people who live here love about Bolton, rather than us simply telling them and then that feedback will help to form the basis of the next step of the overall development of the Bolton brand.”

Tony Oakman, chief executive of Bolton Council, added: “We are delighted to be a major partner in this campaign to shout about how amazing Bolton is. Amazing events like the Food and Drink Festival and Ironman UK have put us on the map as a superb visitor destination.

“We should celebrate all the wonderful things about Bolton and be excited should about the many plans now beginning to take shape which will change our borough for the better. The next few years will see great improvements."

They will be able to do this in a number of ways, including filling out a simple online form at www.thisisbolton.org, as well as engaging through social media, including Facebook (thisisboltonuk), Twitter and Instagram (@thisisboltonuk), using the hashtags #iloveboltonbecause and #thisisbolton.

Over the next few weeks you will start to see ballot boxes in locations across the borough into which people will be able to post completed paper forms.