LEIGH Civic Trust has denounced a planning application made by a house building company to demolish a listed building in Guest Street.

Elite Homes (North) Limited of Eccles have lodged an application for permission to demolish the former George Shaw brewery (pictured).

It is understood the company wish to erect a number of houses on the site if the application is successful.

But it has brought an angry reaction from Stuart Hide, Chairman of Leigh Civic Trust, who commented: "I am opposed to any listed building being demolished unless it is in a particularly dangerous condition. We are reaching the stage in Leigh that we are not going to have anything left of historical interest.

"I've knocked myself sideways over the past five years trying to get things done, and I wonder if this brewery building can incorporate any local features to save it from being lost for ever.

"We need our historic buildings to be saved and preserved, not knocked down just because they are in the way of someone's plans."

And Elizabeth Isherwood, Vice Chairman of the Trust, added: "Although this is a listed building there are different categories of listed buildings and I would certainly oppose any plans to demolish the old brewery building in Guest Street.

"We have little enough of our heritage left as it is, and I only wish the people of Leigh would make a bit more noise to demand that parts of our town are left for future generations."

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