JANET Shaw (Your Letters, May 21) seems to have forgotten that the borough's Woodbury Millennium project included a bid to the National Lottery Millennium Commission for a quarter of a million pounds to fund the chartering of the "Phoenix" from Square Sail.

No one requested - nor were they offered - any council money to fund that bid other than the deposit to secure the "Phoenix" until the money came through (which in the event was not needed).

Unfortunately, as everyone now knows, the Millennium Commission turned down our bid. As a former merchant seaman, no one was more disappointed than I when they refused to back our maritime adventure. Despite Ms Shaw's somewhat dismissive attitude, I can state that the council invested a great deal in the bid in terms of member and officer time and expertise, including the preparation of the bid itself and of innumerable meetings in Bury, London and the United States.

Since then, we have continued to invest time, effort and expertise in, firstly, trying to find alternative sponsors for the chartering of the "Phoenix" and, secondly - but no less importantly - in working up the arrangements for the exchange visits of primarily young people between Bury and Woodbury, New Jersey.

Like Ms Shaw, I was surprised to see the "open letter" by Melvin Magnall in the Bury Times only a few days after he had attended a meeting of the steering committee, chaired by myself. At that meeting it had been agreed that we would wait until the end of May for responses from companies approached for sponsorship before deciding our next move.

Irrespective of whether we find enough sponsorship for the project to retain a maritime element, the project is still very much alive and very much worthwhile, and I sincerely hope that those who have been associated with it so far will continue to work for its success next year.

COUNCILLOR DEREK BODEN,

leader, Bury MBC.

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