THE multi-million pound development of a National Army Museum in the North will not be going ahead as planned, it has been confirmed.

The project at Catterick Village is on hold because of fears that certain legal requirements cannot be met.

But hope for the plan still remains, with the agencies involved insisting they remain committed to seeing it realised eventually.

Construction work on the £22m scheme near Marne Barracks was to have started in spring and full planning permission had been expected shortly.

But the project has been shelved because of uncertainties involving the procurement of the site from the Ministry of Defence and the legal structure of the proposed operation.

The museum's council said that the decision had been reached reluctantly but they were unable to expose the collections to 'the risks inherent in the position as it has emerged.'

Assistant director David Smurthwaite said: "It is with great regret that the museum council, because of factors outside its control, has taken the decision not to proceed with construction at the present."

But he said: "The council has not abandoned its aspiration to establish the National Army Museum North in Richmondshire and the museum will continue to work to achieve this."

The move to the Catterick area is seen as essential for the museum. With its ever-increasing collections of often large equipment - such as transport - it needs somewhere to put them on public display.

Its London premises are far too small to show such collections to their best advantage and the only alternative to moving north is keeping them in storage, which the museum does not want to do.

The Catterick development was also expected to create more than 100 jobs locally.