LEIGH'S Ice Age dream of Xanadu could make the town the envy of Europe.

Early pronouncements of five million visitors a year for a mind-blowing £150million leisure, aquatics and winter indoor sports complex are healthy statistics.

The project will attract some 2,500 permanent jobs plus another 5,000 temporary construction workers in the glittering Millennium Project.

The pleasuredome complex on the site of Leigh Community Sixth Form College was officially submitted to the planners in August. Suddenly, almost a year after the whisper of Xanadu, the dream was taking shape.

London-based Moorfield Estates plc is combining with Greenbank Partnerships, working hand-in-hand with Disneyland snowmakers Acer Snowmec and Wigan Council, to scheme Britain's largest indoor leisure project.

The 1,500,000 sq ft complex at Marshall Street will be topped by an awe-inspiring "Taj Mahal"-type building which will be seen for miles and has been described as a "significant and symbolic building".

Xanadu will mean...

Leigh on the European tourist map

Five million spending visitors a year in town

2,500 permanent jobs

5,000 temporary construction jobs

Improved rail/road links

A spanking new Leigh College

Leigh's new 18 hole golf course in an area off Plank Lane to expand the country park

30-screen cinema complex

Alpine village with real snow

Ski slopes

Aquatics centre and junior sports academy centre

21st Century hotel and restaurant complex

Huge observation tower

Leigh's first international-standard swimming pool

Plus the project will attract some of the UK's top High Street stores into the town.

The aim is to have Xanadu up and running in time for the Millennium celebrations.

Alex MacLachlan, Moorfield's project leader, confirmed: "There will be nothing like it in the UK. It's unique."

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