One of Greater Manchester's most treasured institutions is fighting for survival

Drive off the M60 and into Whitefield, and it's not long before you know about the town's most iconic bakery.

The street signs here have long boomed: "Welcome to Bury" and "Welcome to Whitefield" while also bearing the slogan "The home of Slattery" - signposting the famous pâtissier and chocolatier in its midst.

But it's a sign of the times, and the growing costs crisis hitting the hospitality industry, that those famous Slattery road signs may soon be coming down.

Bakery owner John Slattery has been paying Bury Council for that prominent bit of signposting since 2007. But with the ever increasing overheads to his business, it's now one cost he can no longer afford to continue.

Scrapping the signs is one of the measures he's having to take to try to ensure the long-term future for his family-run business. John tells the MEN: "We've had those signs since 2007, and it costs us £300 a month for those signs.

"But I've just written to Bury Council to cancel it to say I'm sorry but at the moment we feel we can't afford that additional cost. It's just an expense we don't need at the moment.

"If you work out from 2007, we've paid £60,000 for those signs. The council might be nice to us and say we can keep them a bit." Won't they be missed? John says: "They've been there a long time and done the job, but I do love the one that says "Welcome to Whitefield, the home of Slattery" because that's what we are."

It would be simply unfathomable to think of Whitefield without Slattery. It's as iconic to Greater Manchester as Betty's is to Yorkshire.

It has become a tourist attraction in its own right over the past 21 years at its current site on Bury New Road, with a history stretching back another 30 years further with its roots in