New market needs another £2.4m due to 'complexities of construction'

“COMPLEXITIES of construction” mean that Darley Street Market will need an extra £2.4m on top of the millions already spent on the project. The opening of the new market has already been pushed back, and a new report by cash strapped Bradford Council reveals that a number of issues have led to “an extension of time and additional cost” to the project.

These issues include the propping up of neighbouring buildings – a cost that hadn’t been included in the initial calculations for the flagship regeneration project. News of the £2.4m overspend comes just a few months after the Council’s Executive approved a £1.

4m overspend on the development. One opposition Councillor has called the extra cost "most unwelcome." At a meeting of the Council’s Executive on Tuesday, Council bosses will be told that “several factors” have led to the overspend of the flagship development, including design changes and a more complicated than expected demolition process.

Plans for the new market date back years, and has been one of the biggest regeneration projects of the past decade. Built on the former Marks & Spencer site on Darley Street, the three-storey market will eventually replace the city’s two existing markets, at Oastler and Kirkgate. An aerial image of Darley Street Market (Image: Bradford Council) Darley Street Market will feature a fresh food hall that will include butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers, a non-food floor that will feature clothing and beauty stall.