DEVELOPERS have been given the final go-ahead for the massive Bolton Wanderers sports village at Horwich.

It will mean a new 25,000 all-seater stadium for the club...and 3,000 new jobs.

Environment Minister John Gummer has finally approved plans for the whole of the huge development off Mansell Way, Horwich.

This also includes a shopping complex, leisure facilities including a multi-screen cinema, a business park and housing.

But he has imposed a number of conditions including reducing the size of the car park to 5,000 spaces in a bid to encourage people travelling to the development to use public transport.

The council, developers and Bolton Wanderers are delighted by the results of the long awaited report following a public inquiry in August last year.

A club spokesman said: "It is excellent news and the car parking condition will be sorted out. "It means that we are now on target for the club to be in the stadium for August 1997."

But the news will come as a bitter blow to protesters who argued it would mean the death knell for Horwich town centre and increase traffic on already busy roads.

They hoped the scheme would be put on ice when the government postponed the A5225 Wigan Westhoughton bypass and asked for another traffic impact assessment to be drawn up. But the Government report accepts that minimal highway changes proposed by developers will be enough to cope with the traffic, even without the bypass.

However the reports calls on the developers to take a number of steps to improve the provision of public transport and encourage people to use it.

This includes cutting the proposed car parking spaces from 8000 spaces to 5000 and boosting rail and bus provision to the site.

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