Westfield has stressed that it intends to begin construction on its £320 million Bradford city centre shopping complex before the end of 2013.

Aspects of ground maintenance have now begun on the site, with more expected as the developer prepares to start building work.

Anchor tenants Debenhams and Marks & Spencer are already signed up to the scheme, alongside other retailers including Next, WHSmith, Vodafone and Phones 4U, and Westfield says there are more to come.

Duncan Bower, Director of Development and Asset Management for the Australian-owned group, said: “Everything has always been subject to meeting the necessary pre-lettings hurdle with key retailers, but this is going very well. It remains our objective to be on site and in construction before the end of the year.”

Westfield confirmed that two contractors, Project De-Watering Ltd and Bradford company Raise The Roof, had been on site yesterday, with the former checking the pumps used to drain standing water from the area, and the latter clearing unwanted vegetation.

“We’ve got a prominent city centre site, meaning that we need to keep it maintained,” said Mr Bower. “Obviously there has been a bit of water retention over there and we need to keep the site in good order.

“People will start to see a little bit more activity to keep the site presentable, and when we are ready to go full-on with construction we will let people know.”

A report given to Bradford Council’s regeneration and economy overview and scrutiny committee in October showed that more than half of the floor space for the centre was now “spoken for”, and Westfield confirmed that more businesses are likely to sign on the dotted line.

Neil Maclure, Senior Development Executive for Westfield, said: “More than half the floor space of the centre has a name against it. The focus now is to get further key names exchanged and that is what we are concentrating on.

“The pace of negotations with retailers is taking on a new momentum, we’re in detailed discussions and further key announcements should be made around the end of November.”

Bradford Council leader, Councillor David Green, said he agreed that the delayed redevelopment project remained on track.

“Progress is being made, and we are working with Westfield and keeping up pressure on them to deliver,” he said. “Everything that can be done is being done to start the construction work as planned, and we remain confident that this will be the case.”