BOLTON Council spent more than £50,000 hiring celebrities for its two flagship events last year, it has been revealed.

Figures released following a Freedom of Information request show that the council spent £51,250 on celebrity appearances at last year’s Food and Drink Festival and Christmas lights switch on events — hiring the likes of James Martin, Gino D’Acampo, John Torode and children’s television star Katy Ashworth.

The council has said that considering the figure covered the hiring of 14 different celebrity chefs — it represents value for money in terms of the wider benefits of the events for the town.

The council’s director of development and regeneration, Keith Davies, said: “Just looking at the Food and Drink Festival separately — we have 14 chefs, with some costing a fair bit more than others.

“I think it is a pretty economical way of making sure that we have the right level of professionals to get 150,000 people turning up every year.

“If you multiply 150,000 in terms of spends at the festival and the money made by other businesses over the weekend, then that kind of spend is something that gives us a great return."

He added: “What we always get is a very significant income from the festival on tickets sales and sponsorship alone and that is largely because of the high status of the chefs — they make sponsors like Aldi come and get on board."

The food festival and the annual Christmas lights switch on are two of the council’s “pillar events”, which it says gives it the best economical return for the town centre and the borough as a whole.

Mr Davies added: “It is important that we keep up the standard and introduce fresh faces every year — we did it with John Torode last year and will be doing it again with Lisa Faulkner this year.”

The manager of Market Place shopping centre, Nikki Wilson-Cooke, said these events are vital for the town centre economy.

She added: “They are the biggest events in the town centre and bring the most people in.

“For that to work there needs to be celebrities that people want to come and see and the numbers that they attract are fantastic.”