THE Borough's three MPs have presented a united front and thrown their weight of support behind the proposed £75million Leigh Sports Village as the project enters a crucial stage.

Leigh MP Andy Burnham has been joined by fellow MPs Ian McCartney of Ashton-in-Makerfield and Neil Turner of Wigan, in their fight to make the Sports Village project a reality -- with a planning application expected to be submitted by the developer to Wigan Council in the next few days.

The three MPs met with the Director of the Government Office for the North West last week, and told him that the pioneering project would bring huge benefits for the Leigh area and the borough as a whole.

Mr Burnham has also spoken in the House of Commons last week, underlining the project's importance to the Leigh area.

And he urged local people to support the project during the crucial planning stage, to avoid a repeat of the much-heralded Xanadu project -- which collapsed after a long planning inquiry in 2001.

Mr Burnham said: "The launch of the planning application marks another significant step forward. But the project is about to enter a critical phase and we will need all the support we can get if it's to get through.

"People won't need reminding what happened to Xanadu at this hurdle. We want to maximise public support for the project and try and avoid a public enquiry, so we don't have a repeat of the disappointment of the Xanadu project falling through.

"I'm very grateful for Neil and Ian for making time available to back our case. The borough's MPs presenting a united front shows just how important this is to us."

The complex, which will be based on land at Leigh between Marshall Street and Atherleigh Way, would boast a 10,000 all-seater stadium to be used by Leigh Centurions RL and Leigh RMI; a 400m synthetic athletic track for Leigh Harriers and a new Sixth Form College.

There would be office space and corporate facilities with the new college attracting sports courses, and there would also be leisure and retail facilities.

A model of the state-of-the-art Sports Village was unveiled last month at Leigh Library by Andy Burnham, Leigh Centurions head coach Paul Terzis and Leigh RMI manager Mark Patterson -- who all backed the project.