A £3 MILLION shopping mall extension which will bring three national stores to Leigh is nearly complete.

Spinning Gate shopping centre owners Atmore Development Ltd, are hoping the new wing will open in the first week in November, in time for an expected Christmas shopping bonanza.

That will be exactly a year after work started on the site, causing uproar among Leigh market traders. Last year stallholders feared the work would spell festive disaster for them as 100 car parking spaces were lost, and the old outdoor market was moved on to a temporary site.

Completion of work

Now the completion of the work has been welcomed by the chairman of the Leigh Town Centre Management Group, Cllr Brian Jarvis.

He said: "We welcome it and are very supportive of it. It is going to enhance the main shopping zone and can only be a good thing for Leigh."

The extension, which provides an additional 2,800sq m (30,000 sq ft) of retail space, will house four large stores, four small shops and four kiosks.

And moving into the stores will be fashion and homeware business What Everyone Wants, family fashion store Peacocks and the Famous Army Stores. One large outlet is still available.

Four smaller shops are under offer to a jeweller, florist and baby clothes specialist and one is still to let.

Four kiosks have been let to Rayman Gifts, Shoemaster, Sportsworld and Which Watch.

A spokesperson for the owners, Sue Haslam, said: "In the existing centre Argos is expanding and refitting, Country Larder is changing to Cookies Coffee House, a completely new concept, with seating in the mall.

"We are also hoping to have a new national retailer in the existing mall early in the new year."

The extension links the existing shopping centre to the car park and will provide a direct pedestrian route between the existing indoor market and the main bus station.