THE final touches are being put to a £20 million project to take Bolton into the 21st century.

Council chiefs are hoping that a bid for half the cost of the ambitious scheme can be made to the Millennium Commission in the next few weeks.

A huge "Central Park" town centre green oasis is the focus of the Millennium Bid plans.

It would link Queens Park to the main shopping area and re-vitalise land at the back of Deansgate in the area around Marsden Road.

The bid also involves plans to create "green corridors" of environmental improvements and wildlife habitats.

They would be across the borough and run mostly through river valleys.

Mrs Jean Wilson, chairman of the Millennium Bid partnership of business leaders and council chiefs, said: "It is now looking very exciting indeed."

Christine Ellis, project co-ordinator, said the central park idea would focus on the area around the St Helena Mill.

The car park in Bark Street would be converted into a green area and the River Croal would be widened.

Alternative car parking spaces would be set up in Spa Road with a possible bus service into the shopping centre.

She said: "This is very much a "green" Millennium Bid.

The bid would also include improvements to Hall Lee Bank at Westhoughton, Pearl Brook and the River Douglas at Horwich, and at a brook in Farnworth.

If the council is successful with its bid to the Millennium Commission, the rest of the cash would have to come from the private sector and other sorts of public sector funding such as European grants.

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