Developers due to build a massive extension to Biggleswade have admitted they are in no position to start work - with the planning deadline looming.

A spokesman for Taylor Woodrow and Martin Grant Homes, the consortium due to build the 2,100 home estate, has now said it will not begin any new developments at this time - citing the economic climate as the reason.

But she added: "However, parties are progressing with the reserved matters application for planning and we are hopeful to be in a position to begin housing development in the new year."

While permission for the housing will stand until 2011, permission for the Eastern Relief Road - which the Section 106 legal agreement stipulates must be in place before the 350th home is completed - runs out in September this year.

The project, which would include a new lower school, nursery, pub, community centre and shops as well as green spaces, has suffered several setbacks since the 106 agreement - which set out £40million of contributions for the town - was signed in 2006.

Gerry Lawrence, chairman of the Town Plan Steering Group, said: "We don't want them just to sit back and the whole thing disappear, which there is a danger of it doing at the moment I think.

"If we don't get this development we're not going to reach a size as a town where we might be able to bring in a cinema or bowling alley, and these are things that the younger people in particular are really asking for."

While a new reserved matters application, which sets out the details of the plans, would not mean the 106 agreement would have to be renegotiated, he hopes it could provide an opportunity for a second look.

For the full report see the July 3 edition of the Biggleswade Chronicle.