THE first stage of the St Annes Square facelift has turned out to be a bit rough round the edges, according to residents and shopkeepers.

And people are now left wondering when the rest of the remodelling will take place after speculation that the council coffers have run dry.

The £500,000 Phase One of the much-needed revamp -- which should have been completed at the beginning of July -- was plagued by problems from the start after excavation work had to be undertaken by hand due to shop cellars extending under the pathway.

Contractors also faced problems with late delivery of materials and some of the York paving stone had to be changed for a specialist tile to go over the cellar roofs.

But, with the work now officially completed, there are still no lamp posts (pictured is the gaping hole where the post should be installed) and the huge wind baffles earmarked for the gateway to The Square where it joins Clifton Drive are missing. Other unfinished work includes:

BARRICADES fencing off part of a seating area after people were tripping over a sloping step.

DEAD grass in some landscaped areas.

PATCHED squares of bitumen filling in gaps between new tiles and the old ones.

MISSING benches in one of the alcoves and in the five pavilions.

ORIGINAL paving still outside some shops.

Nona and Joe Walsh, owners of Eden, said they were disappointed that the tiled area ended just before their shop.

"We have put up with all the inconvenience of dust in the shop while construction work was taking place and now we don't seem to have benefited from the alterations," said Mrs Walsh, who was also puzzled about the empty alcove opposite her shop. "It doesn't have any benches for people to sit on -- it is just a hollow paved area and because nobody sits there skateboarders use it for somewhere to skate," she said. Paul Drinnan, chief development control officer, said paving would be soon be completed and benches would be put in the empty alcove and in the five pavilions.

He added that all the work was guaranteed for 12 months so the dead grass on the verges would be replaced and the problems regarding the cordoned off area would be rectified under the guarantee.

He said: "All the construction work and materials meet the required regulations. But because the stepped slope is made out of the same colour of stone on both sides it is difficult for people to judge where the step actually is even though a white line is painted along the edge." He said a barrier and a rail would be put up in the next few weeks.

Mr Drinnan could not say when work for phase two would start but added he did not think there would be problems with funding. He said the council was exploring all avenues of funding the project and was not ruling out the possibility of a car parking operator funding the parking spaces.

Mr Drinnan stressed that the wind baffles were not part of the first phase of the project. "The council has now been given the £4,500 funding for the wind baffles by the North West Arts Board Grant and work and tests for the best design is expected to start soon," he said.