The new owners of the planned Broadway shopping scheme expect to take possession of their land in Autumn.

Westfield will be ready to move on site as soon as the £20 million project preparing the infrastructure for the shopping centre is finished.

The huge scheme, expected to draw shoppers from across Yorkshire, will run along part of existing Broadway, Petergate and Forster Square

And with the Connecting the City scheme on target, hoarding will be put up to herald an imminent start on the £300 million shopping centre which will transform the city.

The takeover of the Broadway scheme last November by the world's biggest shopping centre operator has caused the timetable to slip.

Bhs, the biggest shop still operating in the area due to be closed for the new shopping scheme, had expected to be shut by now. Instead it is continuing to trade and says closure will be no later than summer. Petergate has almost emptied and the big furniture shop which closed when its lease ran out last year was being boarded up this week.

Since the takeover from former developer Stannifer, Westfield has been scrutinising the layout and analysing construction methods.

But Westfield's UK development director John Burton said: "We have made very good progress and have caught up. We are on target to complete the scheme in 2008."

Debenhams and Bhs remain the main tenants in major stores and there will be more than 80 other shops, 171 apartments and 2,500 parking spaces. There is also planning permission for a 120-bedroomed hotel and Westfield is encouraging speciality restaurants to take space.

Mr Burton said progress on the scheme would be "crawl, walk and then run" but it would be delivered on time.