GEORGE Osborne’s comments about Northwich in last week’s Guardian have divided the town after hundreds of people had their say on social media.

The article on Mr Osborne’s visit to the Lion Salt Works sparked 238 comments on Facebook and reached almost 23,000 people.

Many people disagreed with his view of Northwich as currently one of the most exciting towns in England because of the developments taking place, while many others agreed with him and called on people to back the town.

Here are some of the comments.

Phil Bower - New road system that works very well now, brand new leisure centre and 500-seat entertainment venue/exhibition space, 80 million investment in new shops and multi-screen cinema. Huge investment shoring up the old salt mines, Anderton lift and Lion Salt Works, Weaver Hall Museum. Best independent shopping for miles, and a great town centre full of committed retailers big and small. Northwich IS an exciting place.

Stephen Manley - I don’t know of any other town in Cheshire having an 80 million pound facelift.

Andy Dale - Northwich has become run down over the years - and guess what? They're doing something about it!

Paul Clarke - The development of Northwich will bring more small businesses and the strongest of the existing ones will survive. How many moaners on here use the local shops? It’s up to the people of Northwich to help the small businesses prosper not just the council.

Jane Hough - I am incredibly disappointed in what appears to be ‘negative’ comments about your town. A town that will see £100m worth of investment and regeneration over the next couple of years. Northwich is back on the map and it needs you, its residents, to support it in the future.

Victoria Vickers - Is he talking about the same town? The one with ugly buildings, nothing to do? Perhaps it will improve with this investment.

Chris Irish Chris Hewitt - Northwich - you don’t live here, you survive it.

Geoff Edwards - Asda and a Cineworld the height of excitement - is there an election on?

Sue Allen - The only good thing about Northwich are the roads going out.

Derren ‘Sid’ Alcock - OMG - charity shop, empty shop, charity shop, empty shop, charity shop, empty shop, pub fight, pub shut, pub fight, pub shut, police sirens - how exciting!

Chris Bailey - I’ve just finished doing battle with another load of road closures...an hour and a half to pay a cheque into the bank.....not sure ‘exciting’ would be my adjective of choice.

Liam Ashbrook - The only thing that’s exciting is the tumbleweed that passes through the town centre.

Sue Daisy Barker Caveney - Someone’s having a laugh here, it’s about as exciting as watching paint dry!

Andy Dunne - The bottleneck system which has not been improved will get worse with more future traffic once the project is complete. People will avoid town like the plague if they don’t improve the flow of traffic.