Dear Sir,

Andy Burnham's enthusiasm to work for the people of Leigh is most welcome after what some would describe as a period of political hibernation for this area.

What does concern me, however, is his partisan promotion of the quarter-of-a-billion Xanadu project, one of the largest seen in this area, that will reduce the quality of life for many within a five-mile radius of the site.

Many people opposed Xanadu for different reasons, hence the need for a tribunal, but, as far as I am aware, Andy has never consulted them and hence he must be supporting the party line of Wigan Met and the private developers.

Large amounts of private finance nowadays appears to transfix Labour, somewhat like a moth around a light bulb, and they never question real issues, as evidenced by the London Underground fiasco.

I thought an MP had to represent all his constituents and not just those with money and power.

Xanadu is essentially a vehicle to meet the needs of Wigan Met and Leigh College in addressing their problems of disposing of land to fill their coffers and then those of developers.

Meeting the perceived needs of the people of Leigh was an afterthought. It is a travesty of justice to call a small 72 acres of green fields 'brown land', when there are over 700 acres of spoil heaps at Bickershaw Colliery (now designated as green land) available to house a real Xanadu site that will allow for many years of expansion and create thousands of jobs. In addition, a railway and canal already enter the site.

At Pennington, the only room for expansion is to take away most of the green fields and country park to the detriment of the people.

We want a park and drive at Kenyon but without the albatross of the Pennington Xanadu site foisted on us. We want a railway line into Leigh and others to link up the South Lancashire triangle to the main lines again.

This is the only way to get commuters off our choked roads and bring much-needed commerce and industry into our region. We don't want a pitiful busway thrown at us like scraps off the table.

These are the real issues, Andy, and when you start to address these, I, and many others, will sit up and take notice. Until then. it's still the same old selfish arrogant political machine with just a different face that continually fails to motivate both the local and national electorate.

Concerned,

Leigh.

(Name and address supplied)