IT was billed as a slick apartment block offering “world class facilities” for 140 university students, but right now it is little more than an abandoned building site.

Exposed insulation can be seen hanging from the back of the building, while the site exterior remains boarded up with rubble strewn across the ground.

Work to build the seven-storey building on derelict land next to The Balmoral pub in Great Moor Street started in 2016, but stopped 12 months ago after the company funding the scheme went bust.

Details of the project’s collapse have now been revealed by the administrators of one of the companies involved.

The money to fund the scheme is understood to have dried up when a company called Collateral folded, said administrators Leonard Curtis.

They produced a report as administrators of Mederco which was owned by property king and former Bury FC chairman Stewart Day.

Mederco was acting as an agent to build and sell the scheme on behalf of an off-shore company called Franklin International Limited, who are understood to own the land.

Collateral’s collapse left Mederco owing just under £2 million to Tamworth-based Quantum Construction which was building the apartment block.

When the flow of payments stopped, building work came to an abrupt halt, leaving the project unfinished.

The development, which is named 4 Great Moor Street, was supposed to include 119 en-suite ‘pods’, and 21 studio flats, as well as a gymnasium, reception area, communal kitchens, laundry rooms and landscaped gardens.

The University of Bolton had objected to the development of the accommodation, saying that it did not believe the town needed more student accommodation and warned it could lead to more traffic.

The Bolton News understands that despite the lack of movement at the site, discussions have recently started to resurrect the scheme, although it is not known by whom.

A spokesman for Quantum Construction said: “We are disappointed that work had to stop.

“We are being approached by various parties to see if we can complete the scheme.”

A spokesman for Bolton Council added: “We are investigating the circumstances behind the work being halted and are trying to find out further information.”