Keeping an eye on things

Every now and again, if I'm in Shipley on an errand, I'll walk the long, 'scenic' route home, along the canal and up through Saltaire village. It enables me to keep an eye on what's happening on the site of my old workplace, where they have demolished all the buildings and are supposed to be preparing the ground in order to build a large new 'village' of housing. Last time I walked by, before Christmas, there were big diggers on site, apparently starting to fill in the huge hole that was the basement and foundations of the office block. This time... no diggers or anything. It's all just come to a halt. A chap walking past saw me looking through the fence. He said he lived nearby and he reckons the contractors have gone bust. He said the demolition took longer and was more difficult than expected. Of course, that may just be speculation but it does seem odd that, on such a valuable site, work is not continuing. Let's hope it does not become the equivalent of Bradford's former 'hole in the ground', where the Broadway shopping centre now stands. That stood empty for ten years due to economic downturn and failure by the developers to make progress.