LAST week Greenbank Partnerships and Moorfield Estates, the joint Xanadu developers, took part in a public meeting organised by the Leigh Business Partnership, where the whole spectrum of views, for and against, were put forward. This was a positive, well-organised debate where people were prepared to listen and allow us to explain the benefits of our proposals without prejudice. We should like to thank the organisers for giving local people a forum for a genuine, reasoned discussion about the issues.

I hope that those attending were persuaded that as prospective developers, we are prepared to listen and engage in constructive discussion with the local community, and will do so again.

One thing which has emerged, both from the meeting and also from reading the press correspondence, is that people should not lose sight of the fact that Xanadu is about much more than snow and skiing, important elements though these are.

The planning application which we have submitted to the council includes a state of the art aquatics centre complete with a superb fun pool, and a multi-screen cinema complex. Currently Leigh residents have to travel some distance to use such facilities and Xanadu represents a unique opportunity to provide these on their doorstep.

Any suggestion, therefore, that only outsiders will benefit from Xanadu is in our opinion very misguided. Leigh stands to gain as much if not more than anyone from new jobs and economic regeneration but above all from the finest and widest range of leisure facilities in the region.

Chris Baybutt

On behalf of Greenbank Partnerships and Moorfield Estates

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.