I hope those of you that watched Boots n'All tonight enjoyed the fairly fleeting glimpse of the building site and the thoughts of the general manager, Mike Callaghan and the Leigh coach Tony Benson and Phil Clarke.

It's nice to hear that the development is acting as a spur to Leigh Centurions - all the best lads for the weekend against Hull KR.

Phil and his brother Andy (who played at Leigh Miners Rangers for a little

while) had visited the site with me ten days before so they had understood at first hand the sheer size of the development. They understand that the stadium is only a small part of the total build and they are genuinely excited about the prospects and the knock-on effect on the community as whole.

Last week I was down at the site again this time with Leigh Police.

I find it amazing that we are all working hard to improve our town and 'give the kids something to do' and yet some of the kids are damaging plant and machinery by smashing digger windows by catapults etc and some older ones driving dumpers late at night. Still older ones are walking across it because it is 'their space' and others using it as an unofficial tip.

The Police are taking this very seriously and working with the site security and other specialists to prevent and detect incidences of damage.

Some of the kids are using a den which is nothing short of a death trap but my main concern is youngsters trespassing on the site and putting themselves in real danger of injury or worse because there are some quite deep excavations. I hope parents will point out the dangers to their children.

The cost of repair will not hold anything up but we could do without the distractions.

On the positive side, the grant profile appears encouraging. The tenders to build the stadium are back and are now under evaluation and clarification.

We have had talks with various organisations who want to get involved. And lastly the steelwork will start to go up next week for the college and the sports hall - that's when you will be able to see the size and complexity of it all.

P.S. Watch out for the hoardings going up on the by-pass explaining what the development is all about.

Yours in Sport

Trevor Barton