The £40 million leisure complex planned for Bradford's Vicar Lane has collapsed, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal today.

The scheme for a multi-screen cinema, leisure complex and car park was expected to create 450 full-time and part-time jobs, as well as pay for a new Rawson Street market.

But the company due to fund the scheme has told the Council it has pulled out of the deal.

Regeneration committee chairman Councillor Dave Green told the T&A: "I can confirm that Argent, the funding agency for the Vicar Lane development, has pulled out. They told us by letter yesterday that they don't wish to fund the scheme by J F Finnegan.

"Argent was the funding arm of Finnegans. Argent itself is the investment arm of Hermes, the pension fund wing of BT. My understanding is that there has been a corporate decision by Hermes that they don't wish to invest in property development.

"We have no indication of alternative funding by Finnegans at the moment. Without some source of finance it would appear that the scheme we have agreed with Finnegans is unlikely to go ahead."

He added: "It's a blow and, no, it doesn't look good after the collapse of Superdome. But we hope to re-market the Vicar Lane site fairly quickly in the New Year. We are aware of a number of interested parties."

Council leader Ian Greenwood said if Finnegans could find another backer the Council would continue working with them.

"This is a prime site in the City. I am absolutely confident a development will go ahead."

Argent is based at Albany Court, Piccadilly, London. Their chief executive Roger Medelin is away until after the Christmas break and was unavailable for comment.

Councillor Margaret Eaton, leader of Bradford Council's Tory opposition, criticised the Labour-ruled authority for the timing of the news.

"It's been rumoured since August that this was going to happen, but we were told 'Oh there's been a delay'. I think it's appalling that we only get to know the truth on Christmas Eve.

"We need to seriously look at the whole Regeneration section of the Council, what it's trying to do, and why it is such an abysmal failure. We have to look at whether we have the experience to deal with these matters."

Paddy Green, chairman of developers J F Finnegan today refused to comment on the collapse but in June 1997 - more than six months after work should have started - he told the T&A that Vicar Lane would be "the biggest fully-integrated leisure centre of its type in Britain."

Originally there were to have been 21 screens in the cinema. That was then scaled down to 12 in July this year when council planners finally gave approval for a tenpin bowling centre, fitness club, restaurant, bars, and a 1,200-space multi-storey car park.

Work should have started in January, but the council extended the deadline for contracts to be finalised to August, and then to this month (Dec).

Argent had lodged a £6m cheque with Bradford Council to cover the cost of the land at Vicar Lane. The cash reverts back to Argent now that they have withdrawn.

And that puts a question mark over the future of the redevelopment of Rawson market as the £6m was earmarked for the re building work.

Councillor Green said there were still parties interested in the site including Eddie Healey, the multi-millionaire chairman of the Stadium Group and main shareholder of the Meadowhall Mall in Sheffield.

Mr Healey made news earlier this year by proposing an alternative scheme to the £200m Superdome at Odsal, a scheme which he subsequently revised. But other sites in the city have also attracted the developer's attention, Vicar Lane among them.

Mr Healey was unavailable for comment.

Blow 'no surprise'

Market traders today reacted angrily to the news of the collapse of the Vicar Lane plan, but admitted it came as no surprise.

Chairman of the Rawson Market Tenants' Association, John Parker, said several traders were considering taking legal advice.

He said: "This is real incompetence on the part of Bradford Council. If it was a private businesses overseeing the redevelopment, heads would have rolled."

Butcher Donald Pickup said: "Rawson Market does not belong to the greengrocers or the butchers - it belongs to the people of Bradford. The Council has ripped the heart out of the city centre."

He added many stallholders were not surprised to hear that the scheme had fallen through.

"I sat down with Council officers three years ago and they assured traders that a brand- new market, rather than a refurbishment of the old one, was the way to go.

"It's an absolute nightmare. This whole saga has been one broken promise after another."

T&A Opinion

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