AFTER almost two decades of delays and frustrations - with a global recession to contend with too - the opening of Bradford's long-promised shopping centre will finally be here tomorrow.

It was way back in 1998 when plans for a major shopping centre were originally announced. A landscape of 1960s flats and shops was to be pulled down and replaced with a multi-million pound mall.

Councillor David Green, then Bradford Council's regeneration committee chairman, described the development as "an exciting opportunity" which would improve the quality and range of shops and create jobs.

Sandy Needham, the director of Bradford Chamber of Commerce, added: "I think it is good news and it is what we were hoping for."

But she, and frustrated shoppers across the district, have had to wait 17 years for day they can finally get through the centre's doors, as promised building and opening dates have been and gone.

Several times people questioned if the centre would ever open and doubts were only put to bed at the start of 2014 when building work finally began on the site which had become known as The Hole.

Duncan Bower, the director of development for developer Westfield, said he appreciated why people were irritated by the setbacks.

"We do understand the frustration but when you get a global financial crisis of the kind we had in 2008 and the impact that it had in subsequent years, it really could do nothing else but significantly slow down not just The Broadway, but just about every other shopping centre development bar London," he said.

"Yes, it's taken a little bit of time; yes, it's had a little bit of a difficult birth, but we do think that beautiful things come out of that kind of adversity and, thankfully, that's where we are today."

Mr Bower said tomorrow's opening signalled a new chapter for the city.

"It's a great day but it's the start of the story, not the end of it," he said.

"We're are privileged to be involved in this development.

"There's a pride not just in what we've done but also in Bradford. We hope that Bradford will be proud of what they see."

In the late 1990s, a consortium, led by Knottingley-based Caddick Construction, was behind the development and it exchanged contracts in a £7.5 million deal to buy the buildings which were in receivership.

The new shopping centre was said to be a good deal for Council tax payers as the local authority, which owned the site, had secured a profit-share deal with the consortium.

In 1999 the initial plans were approved. After the Government signalled it supported the scheme, detailed plans were drawn-up and traders on the site waited to find out what came next.

Three years later more than 80 businesses were told their premises would be razed to make way for the £200m shopping centre.

The development, which would then include about 70 shops and two public squares, was expected to take several years to build.

In 2002 Yorkshire Forward, the Government regeneration agency, backed out of the plans to give vital funding to the scheme, but developers vowed to carry on.

Dozens of businesses had already quit the bottom end of Bradford city centre because of the Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) on the 80 properties.

Preparations were made for bulldozers to move in around Easter 2002.

By August 2003, developer Stannifer had taken over the project and it said work would start as funding had been agreed.

In 2004 two major office blocks were flattened and Westfield became the new owners of the scheme - after buying out Stannifer's parent company - and promised to open by Christmas 2007.

Over the next few years the scheme was revised, final CPOs were issued and Westfield took possession of the site.

In 2006, there was still "great confidence" from the Council that work would start in 2007 and Westfield said it had paid the majority of compensation money to cover the CPOs.

Preliminary work started late in 2007, but the developer was forced to deny that construction work had been delayed.

In 2008 the development was hit by its biggest setback when the global downturn bit and the scheme was put on hold.

In May 2011, after the site had been turned into a public space called the Urban Garden, Westfield announced it was poised to restart the mothballed scheme.

A scaled-back planning application was submitted and detailed plans of the first phase of the development were approved unanimously by Bradford Council.

But still the project stalled and frustrations grew.

A protest group, called Occupy Westfield, set up camp on the site in May 2012, calling for a public inquiry into how the city had been left "devastated by the developers and Bradford Council". Westfield was granted a court order to evict the group, which moved off the site in July 2012.

In the meantime, department store Debenhams showed its commitment to the scheme by announcing its store would span three levels.

In December 2013 Westfield and investor Meyer Bergman announced that there was no going back -all paperwork had been signed meaning the scheme must go-ahead and the Urban Garden was closed.

Work finally started in January 2014 and finally faith was restored that the shopping centre would be delivered.

Yesterday, Cllr David Green, now Bradford Council leader, said: "The hiatus over the centre between 2007 and 2011 damaged the reputation of the development and the city's confidence, but since 2011, we have worked on it with Westfield and Meyer Bergman, and have developed it despite the sceptics."