THE Borough's Millennium voyage to America has been sunk after town hall bosses refused to bail it out.

Despite months of appeals, organisers have failed to come up with the £250,000 needed to steer the sailing ship "Phoenix" to Woodbury.

It's the end of a dream for Melvin Magnall who hoped to recreate the historic voyage of Henry Wood who sailed from Bury to the States in 1682 and founded the town of Woodbury.

While the voyage will no longer go ahead, plans to fly hundreds of Bury people over - at their own expense - for a sporting and cultural exchange are still on.

Mr Magnall was hoping that the council would underwrite the cost of the boat before the deadline for booking it runs out this month, giving organisers more time to raise the money.

Bitterly disappointed, he said: "I don't feel the council has put its heart and soul into this. We have had lots of fine words but very little action and there has been no input from our MPs.

"I wasn't looking for a gift: I hoped the council see this project as a wonderful business opportunity. We could go to Woodbury and 'sell' Bury to the Americans." Mr Magnall added: "This was a once-in-a-lifetime project which even had the endorsement of the United States President. It is an opportunity lost for Bury, though I am still fully behind the exchange element of the trip."

Council leader Derek Boden said the local authority had put in a lot of effort on the trip, but had never promised to fund the voyage.

"It's not a case of not putting our hands in our pockets, but in everyone else's pockets," he said. "I don't believe we are entitled to ask everyone to stump up for this through taxation.

"What would people want to do without to fund this? If people thought we had just found a bag of money in the corner, they would say it's a shame we didn't find that six weeks ago and give it to the schools.

"Regrettably the answer has to be a very firm no."

Coun Boden said there was still "every prospect" of a trade fair - the council was asking the Government for cash to help promote Bury and North West firms in America as part of the project - and said: "We will concentrate all our efforts on making the rest of the project a success."

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