WORK on the controversial Epsom supermarket development will not start until next year.
Work was planned to begin in October, after the City of Greater Bendigo council approved the sale of the Howard Street Recreation Reserve to developers in September.
However, further negotiations between the council and developers FKP have continued to delay the start of the project.
Acting council chief executive officer Craig Neimann acknowledged the project had been delayed.
“The delay is because of a contractual matter around the contract of sale,” he said.
“We are talking about the
design of the increased open space in the development and agreeing to that and the infrastructure that supports that.”
Mr Neimann said a draft of the compromise plan had been presented to the Epsom Huntly Community Liaison Committee.
“That is now being finalised,” he said.
“That is part of the development agreement. It will all be part of the same sale but it is to ensure the open space is developed at the same time as stage one.”
Mr Neimann said an environmental audit of the Station Street land nearby, although part of a later stage, was also required before the sale could be approved.
“The environmental audit is also looking at things like groundwater, which has delayed it as well,” he said.
“There is nothing to be concerned about with that testing, it is just to tick the boxes as we are going through the process.
‘We are in the final throws of the sale.”
A spokesman for developers FKP said development was on track to begin “early in the new year” and it would not delay the final finishing time.
Protestors have vowed to stand in front of the bulldozers when they do finally begin.