How Middleton’s revival could be grist to the mill for Britain’s struggling towns

Turnaround initiated by Andy Burnham and led by Steve Coogan could provide blueprint for other neglected areas • Save high street by creating ‘level playing field’ with online rivals, Burnham urged The former England footballer Paul Scholes and the actor Steve Coogan stare out from beside a fish and chip shop in Middleton, near Manchester. Looming over a mural of the pair – and the whole town – is an enormous former cotton mill that powered its economy a century ago. The deafening looms and spin