A £200M plan to transform Huddersfield town centre will have to be scaled back.

Kirklees Council’s leader Clr Mehboob Khan admitted that the Queensgate Revival project would have to be reduced.

And even on a smaller scale, it could be years from starting because of the recession.

Three years ago, the council unveiled ambitious plans for a huge area of the town centre.

The development plan takes in the Queensgate Market Hall, the Alfred Street multi-storey car park, the former Co-operative store and buildings on New Street.

Kirklees Council said it needed £50m of private investment to help finance the £200m plan, which includes a new library, a three-storey department store, 100-bed hotel, 100 homes, a new market hall, bars, restaurants and up to 900 parking spaces.

In March council leader Clr Mehboob Khan revealed that the plan was on ice because of the recession.

And yesterday he said that Queensgate Revival would have to be scaled back.

Clr Khan said: “We will have to review the size and scale of the development.

“It might well be too large to go to the market in its current form.

“It would still be an ambitious plan but the size and type of retail units would be different.”

Clr Khan added that even a scaled-back plan might not get off the ground for years.

He said: “The legacy of the recession could well last several years after the recession itself has ended.

“Confidence in multi-million pound developments is not going to return to pre-recession levels for several years.

“We will revisit this in the latter half of next year and gauge the attitude from the public, town centre visitors and investors.”

Other major developments in and around the town centre have also ground to a halt because of the recession.

The Spindlegate scheme, at the junction of Leeds Road and Hillhouse Lane, saw the former Robinsons’ dyeworks demolished.

But plans to build a new retail park on the site have not yet started.

And the redevelopment of the massive former railway warehouse close to Huddersfield Railway Station is also in limbo, following pledges that work would start on a complex of apartments, offices and retail units.