BURY Show is moving to a brand new home at an expanded Burrs Country Park.

A touring caravan park and camp site will also be built at the Brandlesholme park which town hall bosses hope will attract visitors during the Commonwealth Games.

Organisers of the town's agricultural show have been looking for somewhere to go since the council decided to sell off Bury Ground at Castlecroft. This year the show was held at Goshen fields.

More land is being set aside for further unspecified developments at the country park, but bosses say the green belt land is not for housing.

Negotiations are still going on, but work to build the new showground in time for next year's show has just been given approval by senior councillors. Cash from the sale of Castlecroft will pay for the work.

Council leader Derek Boden said: "We need a reasonably sized piece of land which can be made available regularly for the show, which needs some stability over years to come.

"It's a significant deficiency in Bury that we don't have a caravan and camp site," he added. "We expect a lot of visitors to the borough during the Commonwealth Games and we hope to have a variety of accommodation available." The council still plans to "adopt a nation" during the 2002 Games.

There are also proposals to set aside land to allow Burrs to expand in the future as the number of visitors increases.

"Our policy is still to safeguard the green belt," said Coun Boden. "We don't want any development there that would detract from outdoor activities."

Coun Boden re-iterated the council's reasons for the agricultural show having to move now, even though negotiations to sell Bury Ground have not been completed. One major company wants to set up its HQ on part of the ground, and there have been enquiries about the remainder of the site.

"We don't want to be in a position where, if several hundred jobs might come into the borough, we are not able to enter an agreement until the following year because of engagements," he said. "Because of that, the whole of Bury Ground has been made available for development."

The town's traditional autumn fair was also forced off Castlecroft and held on The Rock this year, where Coun Boden said it was likely to stay.

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