PORTSMOUTH's hopes of catching up with the shopping attractions of its south coast rivals have been dealt a major blow.

Now the city is further ahead in the retail race after the bombshell news that the £500 million transformation of the Portsmouth city centre has been delayed for at least six years.

Daily Echo: Click below to see a video of today's headlines in sixty seconds

The Northern Quarter scheme had already been put on hold because it was not economically viable. But developers Centros, who own huge chunks of land in the city centre, says work will not start on the Northern Quarter project until 2015.

This will give time to put together a new masterplan as well as getting planning permission and other legal agreements.

Civic chiefs have always hoped that their dreams of Northern Quarter, offering a spectacular array of shopping, would become a reality. The plan with more than 80 shops, cafés and restaurants, would have transformed Commercial Road into a major shopping attraction.

It was the major thrust of a plan to create a new regional shopping centre to challenge the retail might of Southampton, since the blockbusting attraction of Ikea has put the city firmly on the retail map.

Now those dreams are in tatters as the recession sweeps through Portsmouth's shopping streets.