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Heaton Park will be the venue for the bowls events and football pitches near the St Margaret's entrance are being replaced by a new stadium to include a players' pavilion, greens and spectator terraces.

The park, the biggest of its kind in Europe, is within the Manchester boundary and is paid for by the city's council tax payers but a number of entrances, including St Margaret's, are from roads in the neighbouring borough of Bury.

Large numbers of residents living in Prestwich use the park's facilities and the Heaton Park Bowling Club is based in Bury but no contribution is made by Bury residents towards the park's maintenance.

Bury residents want an existing entrance on Middleton Road - which is within the Manchester boundary - to be used as access to the new bowls facilities.

Manchester City Council says this would require a car park near the Middleton Road entrance which would wreck the historic landscape currently being restored as part of a multi-million-pound revamp.

Alternatively, traffic would have to drive almost two miles across the park to reach the bowling greens creating a hazard to families, dog walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

Householders living near St Margaret's gate are concerned their lives will be made a misery by traffic flowing through the residential area during construction and when the Games start in 2002.

They complain the area, characterised by six-figure-value mansions in their own grounds which overlook the park, will never be the same again once the bowls facilities are opened to the public.

Meetings have been held between Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese and the MP for Prestwich, Ivan Lewis, as well as local residents who object to the plans. A further meeting is planned during March.