Scaffolding now surrounds the former Netto supermarket and Star Hotel.

They are to be demolished to make way for shops, offices, restaurants, a multi-screen cinema, a bowling alley, a bingo hall and a 400-space car park.

The move coincides with start being made this week on a £4.5 million scheme to improve the Shay stadium.

A developer was chosen to transform Broad Street, directly opposite Halifax Town Hall, as long ago as 1995.

But the scheme fell through and Gregory Projects (Halifax) Ltd in partnership with Calderdale Council has now agreed to transform the site and nearby land as part of a £10 million project.

It was recently agreed to abandon plans for more than 100 apartments on the site and to build instead office space for the council and a new central library.

Planning permission was given more than a year ago to pull down the old Star Hotel and approval is pending to replace the supermarket, itself a 1960s bowling alley, with a temporary parking space for use while work takes place on the rest of the site.

Council leader Stephen Baines said earlier this year that he wanted Halifax, which is Calderdale's main town, to have a magnetic attraction for people of all ages and all walks of life, which the Broad Street scheme should deliver.