A FLAGSHIP indoor shopping centre's ambitious plans to build a £400 million super mall in the heart of a city centre has been shelved just days before work was due to start.

Developers have called a halt to their scheme to double the size of Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, despite controversially securing tens of millions of pounds in backing from the council.

The decision raises unanswered questions over a whole range of contentious regeneration projects, including a glass "pedal bin" glass atrium to replace the steps the Royal Concert Hall.

The decision to give a stay of execution to the steps has been met with relief by campaigners who had held protests and submitted 300 letters of objection over the plans to demolish the popular meeting point at the top of Buchanan Street, next to the Donald Dewar statue.

The company behind the scheme, Land Securities, was unable to say how long its plans were on hold for or what impact the delay would have on the atrium and other projects.

One city source said: "The steps have had a stay of execution but a mall expansion of some shape of form is still on the cards."

Aileen McKay, of the Save the Steps campaign, said: "I'm just

pleased the public space is going to be around a bit longer."

Land Securities blamed the hold-up on risks associated with parallel improvements to Queen Street station, which have been under discussion almost as long as the supermall itself.

In a statement, the company said: "We are not currently pursuing the existing plans for the extension of Buchanan Galleries, due to an increased level of risk generated by the simultaneous delivery of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP).

"As a long-term investor in Glasgow, we remain committed to owning and managing the existing successful Buchanan Galleries scheme and we retain our ambition to invest in improving the retail and leisure provision within the centre.

"We will continue to work on our plans to extend Buchanan Galleries, as Network Rail delivers EGIP over the next 18 months."

The delay only emerged after Glasgow City Council cancelled "enabling work" for the extension on North Hanover Street right next to George Square and Queen Street station. That work had been due to start on Sunday.

Insiders said they had expected actual construction work to begin this summer. The mall, under sometimes robust political discussion for years, had been scheduled to open for Christmas 2017.

At least one business, Visit Scotland's tourist information office on Buchanan Street, has already had to relocate because its building was subject to a compulsory purchase order.

Network Rail, which owns Queen Street, is not expected to complete its work at the station until 2019. Its redevelopment also includes new retail and leisure offerings.

The Buchanan Galleries supermall is part of a highly controversial Tax Incremental Funding (TIF) scheme sought by Glasgow's ruling Labour council and supported by the SNP's Holyrood administration.

The scheme will see the council raise a total of more than £80m against future extra additional future business rates from the supermall.

Critics, such as city centre councillor Nina Baker, believe the business case for the TIF was "delusional".

The scheme supposed a worst-case scenario of retail sales growth averaging at more than two per cent a year for two and a half decades.

Ms Baker, a Green, said: "I hate to say 'I told you so' but this was always a monumental gamble with public money.

"The TIF was always risky but now it looks even more risky."

Glasgow City Council has already borrowed some £9m under the TIF, for some urban realm work, including a revamp of George Square. Aborted plans top completely remodel the city's main public space were also to have been funded through the TIF.

Council officials last night said that they would have had to have carried out such work without the TIF - and that there had been no loss of public money.

A spokesman said: "The money to pay for that work was borrowed as part of the council's overall capital investment programme and we have already been paying it back."

Asked what the Land Securities delay would mean for associated projects, he added: "We'll need to look at the reconfiguration of their works programme to see what this means for our elements of the project."

The supermall plan include more than 100 new shops, a 10 screen cinema, 25 restaurants and a new 1700 space car park next to Queen Street station.

The 1.2m sq ft of shopping, leisure and restaurant space were to be anchored by two major flagship stores - a new 150,000sq ft Marks & Spencer and a reconfigured 300,000sq ft John Lewis department store - creating an extra 1500 jobs.

Critics, including Ms Baker and rival businesses, said they believed the mall would threaten jobs and sales elsewhere in the city centre. The scheme won planning permission last year.