MILLENNIUM monuments springing up all over the country are creating a shortage of stone needed to transform Bolton's Victoria Square.

Designers say stone for the ambitious scheme needs to have a timeless quality and blend in with existing historic buildings.

After months of deliberation, they chose blueish grey flags from the Derbyshire Quarry in Hayfield and sand-coloured stones from the Yorkshire Buck Park for the setts.

But the natural stone is now in demand for memorial gardens and other schemes to celebrate the year 2000 and designers fear they will miss out unless they act now.

Planning director Ray Jefferson told councillors: "We cannot say we will take a small amount of stone and in two or three months say we want the rest.

"The whole square needs to come from one part of one particular quarry. "There is a lot of competition for quarried stone at the moment because of the Millennium coming up. We need to say: 'Keep that piece aside in case we need it'."

Councillors agreed to a deal which reserves the stone until April but still allows the town hall to pull out at the last minute if it cannot find the money for the Victoria Square revamp.

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