RESIDENTS are calling for action over a restaurant which was wrecked by a fire two years ago.

In April 2017, Thwaites Brewery pledged to submit plans by that summer to rebuild the Grill and Grain in Riley Green.

Bosses were devastated by the fire, having invested £1million into the former Boatyard site which opened under its new name just five months before the blaze.

However, two years on, locals are still waiting for action on the site which was left an ‘eyesore’ by the fire.

Richard Worrall, of Bolton Road, said: “It is a great shame that the Grill and Grain only lasted five months before the fire.

“I was going to write to the MD of Thwaites to ask the company what they planned to do on the site.

“It would be nice if they could tell us what they plan to do with it. It has just become an eyesore.

“The fencing is always falling down and bearing in mind their recent problems with travellers I would have thought they would have made it more secure and it would not take much for them to get on there.

“It was really popular during the spring and summer.”

Joanne Calderbank, 38, of Blackburn Old Road, said: “I was looking on the website and it said there was going to be an announcement in early 2019 but it is now four months old.

“I am a bit shocked as it was so busy and why we have not heard anything about what Thwaites want to do.

“Everybody I speak to keeps asking me if we have heard about it.

“I walk my dog down there and I see people driving onto the car park even now and look shocked at it not being open. I was in the pub during the week before the fire and it was so busy.

“I don’t know why they have left it this long to tell people what is happening.

“It is in such a prime spot and it does not make sense to me why they have not tried to re-open it quickly.”

Cllr Andrew Snowden, county councillor for Hoghton with Wheelton, said: “There is a need to reinvest in it because it was a tourist attraction next to the canal.

“If they have not decided what to do with the site then I don’t know why they cannot knock it all down and then landscape it so it is not as much of an eyesore.”

Thwaites were unavailable for comment.