A PETITION carrying more than 1,000 names against the war memorial plans has been handed to MP David Crausby.

The Egerton and Eagley Heritage Society is outraged at proposals to move it.

Committee members have rallied round to gather names of residents who also feel the monument to the area's war dead should be left alone.

Mavis Whitham, a member of the society, said: "It's part of our heritage and people feel strongly against it being put in the background. There has been talk of the war memorial being vandalised and damaged in the past but that is something residents here have never seen.

"People are so against this plan that two are seriously thinking about chaining themselves to it in protest."

Bolton North-east MP David Crausby said: "The war memorial should not be moved and I support the residents in their efforts."