DIRECTORS of Grundy Hill Estates have played down reports that a move from Hilton Park for Leigh RMI and Leigh Centurions is imminent writes Martyn Hindley

Grundy Hill Estates were the company that bought the ground in early 1995 with a view to preserve the interests of Leigh RMI football club, who have since been promoted to non-league's elite division, the Nationwide Conference.

However, the current owners claim only recently to have been contacted directly about the move to the site of the 'doomed' Xanadu complex, although director Alan Leach claims that the prospect is enticing.

"What I have seen of the plans seem very interesting and exciting", says Leach, who is also the vice-chairman at RMI. "It does seem a very feasible concept on the face of it but there are a number of issues that need to be discussed before the project can get off the ground.

Key issues

"Our representative, Graham Hodgkiss, has only attended the original meeting and not the second on Friday, October 19 at which most of the key issues were discussed in detail. Therefore we do not understand why the local council have released these details, because as far as we were concerned, they were just speculation."

Recent reports have suggested that both codes will be moving to a 12,000 all-seater stadium complete with athletics facilities, fitness and medical centres. However, these reports hinge on the sale of Hilton Park - a landmark in the town's history - which is a detail that has not been discussed with the owners at Grundy Hill Estates at great length.

Further reports claim that the new complex will be a shared ownership between Grundy Hill Estates, Leigh Centurions and Wigan Council. Nevertheless, directors of Grundy Hill Estates will be holding a meeting on Thursday to discuss the proposed new site and Mr Leach goes further to say that the company will do their utmost to "co-operate with Mike Nolan (Leigh Centurions' chairman) whose help in raising the standard of both RMI and Centurions has been tremendous."