AN old soldier claims the giant rock donated to the Leigh branch of the Royal British Legion for use as a war memorial will be a blot on the landscape in the gardens of remembrance.

The four feet high, two tonnes piece of Whitkirk stone, which once adorned the entrance to Leigh's Asda, was gifted by the store which had appealed for a worthy home for its landmark.

Legionnaires plan to move it to the Church Street gardens complete with a plaque remembering the servicemen and women who have died since WW2.

But branch member John Corbett believes the brown rock will stick out like a sore thumb against the white war memorial which is a replica of the Cenotaph in London.

He says the memorial to the later war dead will not bear names and people will be left in limbo.

His alternative suggestion is a red leather bound book in which the names of all those who have died in conflict since 1945 can be recorded and updated. This would be kept in the library and carried to the memorial on Remembrance Sunday and placed there until the end of the service.

The names of the fallen will then be with all the other named heroes who have died so people can pay homage.

Chairman of the Leigh branch, Bob Watson, said: "Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The stone is at present being shaped into a monument, some members are for it and others are against it, and it is going to be hard pleasing everyone.

"Perhaps if all members could attend our meetings we could thrash out a solution.

"Whatever that is we are too late for this year's Remembrance Day parade. Hopefully the matter will be resolved for next year, which is a significant year to celebrate the end of WW2."