The £6 million sale of Bradford's Vicar Lane car park to leisure developers has hit 11th-hour hurdles.

The Telegraph & Argus can exclusively reveal that the August 31 deadline for signing up the deal has passed without completion.

It could now be December before the agreements are clinched and developers J F Finnegan move on site to build their proposed £40 million Leisure Exchange.

The news is a sickening blow to stallholders from Rawson Market who had expected long the delayed redevelopment of the main market to start next month, using the £6 million proceeds from the sale.

It is understood officers are scrutinising the Council's hard-pressed capital budget in a bid to reshuffle funds.

The traders were moved out to a £1.2 million temporary market two years ago - expecting to move back in March this year.

In the meantime not a brick has been laid and about a dozen businesses have folded partly because of problems with the temporary market location.

Today Council leader Councillor Ian Greenwood reaffirmed his commitment to getting the market scheme finished.

The message from worried stallholders, who say two more butchers' businesses collapsed in August, was: "The Council will have to find the cash from somewhere."

The Vicar Lane sale has hit repeated delays, with dates being constantly changed.

Work on the massive complex - expected to provide 300 full time and 150 part-time jobs - was originally scheduled to start in autumn 1996. Then developers said they expected to start work last summer.

Later it was changed to January this year but in February the Council extended the deadline for the contracts to be finalised to August. The deadline for February this year had been extended to August.

The developers then had to submit an amended planning application to the Council in July after the scale of the scheme was reduced when main tenants Warner Village Cinemas cut its planned 21 screen cinema to about 16. The application was approved immediately.

Today Paddy Green, development consultant for J F Finnegan, said: "Principally there has been a change in Warner Village Cinemas' international policy leading to a move towards reducing the size of its multiplex cinemas in favour of larger auditoriums.

"This has meant that we have had to seek further board approvals for our plans and renegotiate a number of leases with other tenants.

"We appreciate the Council's supportive stance on this matter, but have assured them the development partnership is full committed to starting this major scheme in January next year."

It is understood the Council and developers are also in talks over issues believed to include a condition of the amount of prelet space which should be signed up before the deal goes ahead.

The Telegraph & Argus believes there is also an issue about interest accrued on the £6 million for the purchase, which has been held by the Council for some time.

The chairman of the Council's regeneration committee, Councillor Dave Green, said: "We are very sorry about the delay, but in view of the various circumstances, have allowed the developers until the end of the year to complete the purchase of the site."

He said the Council had taken into account the enormous impact and investment in the scheme.

Today stallholders described the news as devastating and said they would press for compensation for every minute of delay.

Chairman of Rawson Market Tenants' Association, John Parker, said: "This should give the message about the extreme seriousness of the situation to the Council. The authority must find the capital for the redevelopment of the market from elsewhere if necessary. This can't go on."

Butcher Donald Pickup said: "This is devastating to both the traders and shoppers. The Council must start the work. I hope they are going to stand by us financially."

President of Bradford Chamber of Trade, Eric Hudson, said the sale delay and uncertainty would go as an emergency item to the monthly Chamber of Trade on Monday.

The leader of the Council's Tory group Councillor Margaret Eaton said: "Councillor Greenwood is always saying he is committed to the market redevelopment but if Vicar Lane falls by the wayside where is he going to find the £6 million necessary to complete the scheme?"

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.