Phoenix is rising (From Warrington Guardian)

Phoenix is rising

WORK on Crewe's long-awaited Eaton Street leisure complex has finally begun and is due to open in July, creating some 200 jobs.

Plans and designs for the 21st Century leisure mecca - christened Phoenix Park - have been in the pipeline for nearly a decade.

Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council's planning committee granted Liberty Properties official permission to develop the site in January 2003.

Construction work was delayed while companies obtained the necessary licences to trade on the land off Dunwoody Way.

But diggers have now moved in and the first stages of the site are beginning to take shape, much to the delight of the council's economy chief, Steve Hogben.

"I am delighted that after so many years of hard work by the borough council and its partners, work in Eaton Street is underway at last," he said.

"The construction of the Phoenix Leisure Park is a scheme which many residents have been looking forward to for a very long time.

"It will be a major leisure and entertainment attraction far and wide, and I am especially pleased that it includes a bowling alley, which at one time people thought was only a councillor's pipe dream.

"This development is hard evidence that Crewe is moving forward and that we are attracting serious investment in the revival of Crewe town centre."

The centre, which has been named Phoenix Park to reflect the number of times the project has been resurrected, will house a Lakeside Superbowl bowling alley, a Curzon cinema, a Mecca Bingo and food and drink outlets including a Pizza Hut and parking for well over 300 vehicles.