MOVES are steaming ahead to honour an Atherton-born boffin whose vision of a high speed hovertrain was dismissed.

Thirty years after the late Professor Eric Laithwaite's dream of 250mph 'magnetic' trains was shunted aside by the British Government the project has now take off - in China.

Following a request from an admirer of the scientist, Kathleen Davenport, Leigh MP Andy Burnham has written to English Heritage requesting that the once-ridiculed boffin should be considered for a blue plaque tribute.

Campaigning

Kathleen, of Francis Place, Atherton, said: "I think he deserves some honour. I have been campaigning for a while.

"I was an admirer of Professor Laithwaite who gave televised Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution and made science easy to understand. I am delighted something is being done at last.

Mr Burnham said: "The professor was a major figure in science and though his ideas were dismissed at the time they have now come to fruition. He is worthy of the award and I await English Heritage's response."

The Car Bank Farm-born don, most famous for his development of the linear motor, was the original brains behind Maglev, short for magnetic levitation, which will see his idea of environmentally-friendly trains powered by magnets flying at 310mph, 10cms above the tracks in China.

It was only in the later years of his life that Prof Laithwaite, who died in 1997 at the age of 76, saw his concept finally taken up around the world.

In 1959 he persuaded ministers to invest £5.25 million in a high speed hovertrain but in 1973 the scheme was cancelled. Things went from bad to worse when he was publicly ridiculed over gyroscope claims and retired into obscurity. He made a comeback in 1996 when he was commissioned by NASA to develop a rocket launcher powered by magnets rather than fuel.

Mr Burnham said: "Hag Fold estate now stands on the site where he was born but a blue plaque could be fixed on a school as an incentive to pupils."