A COMPANY director has insisted work on a major development in Harrow town centre will start again “shortly” after almost a year of inactivity.

Brian Comer, managing director of Comer Homes, said work is due to start again on Bradstowe House as economic conditions improve.

The housing project, which forms a major part of the town centre skyline, has stood empty and unfinished since the middle of last year amid fears work would not restart again.

Mr Comer said: “We shall be starting up again shortly.

“It all depends on the markets, but they are getting better at the minute.

“Of course we are going to finish it we have spent a fortune buying it and keeping it.”

When the Harrow Times spoke to Mr Comer in the middle of last year, he was optimistic the development would be finished by January this year.

However, he said today the recession had forced the company to rethink their plans, and he said he did not want to set a new deadline for completion until economic conditions were more stable.

The development, to include 144 luxury apartments close to the centre of Harrow, took centre stage today at the planning inquiry into the Neptune Point application.

Harrow councillors have rejected the Neptune Point development on the former Travis Perkins site, but Parkridge Developments, the company behind the scheme, has challenged the decision, forcing an independent planning inquiry.

Andrew Williams, who has conducted an independent audit of the proposed scheme, told the hearing today Neptune Point would “talk to Aspect Gate and Bradstowe House” and provide a “high quality building which will raise the game of the approach to Harrow town centre”.

The nine-storey Neptune Point development, containing 146 flats and a Sainsburys supermarket in Pinner Road, has been opposed by councillors and residents, who believe it would excessive in scale and block iconic views of Harrow-on-the-Hill.

The hearing continues tomorrow when both sides are expected to sum up their arguments.