WORK will start next week on the £4.5 million scheme to improve the Shay stadium.
Calderdale Council leader Stephen Baines said delays had been caused by the need to wind-up the Stadium Trust and to finalise the development details.
But now it is all systems go.
The work will involve completing the East stand, putting in seats, changing rooms, bars, toilets and hospitality boxes.
A partnership deal with Calderdale College and Leeds Metropolitan University means there will also be classrooms for students studying sport and leisure subjects.
The council had originally intended to spend £2.7 million which would have completed the stand but it would not have been enough to provide the facilities to make the stadium viable.
Extra cash will come from the eventual sale of the council's administrative headquarters, Northgate House, which is to be replaced by new council offices and a library, as part of the leisure and retail development at nearby Broad Street.
The old East Stand was pulled down in 2000 and work on its replacement came to a halt before the roof and associated work could be completed.
There have been several attempts to finish it including the formation of a trust to try to make the stadium as a whole financially viable but it was never able to raise the necessary cash.
Councillors eventually agreed to complete the stand and this summer the trust was wound up.
Councillor Baines (Con, Northowram and Shelf) said everyone involved had hoped that the work would have begun by now but the bigger scheme meant more negotiations and revising estimates.
Halifax Town's loss of Football League status and the need to wind up the trust had caused further complications.
"But these issues have now been resolved and we are ready to start work at the Shay next week," he said.
The full article contains 327 words and appears in Evening Courier newspaper.
