A financial crisis has brought work to a halt on the multi-million pound redevelopment of Yatesbury Airfield.

Developer Jamal Khanfer was devastated to discover that the funding he had secured from Royal Bank of Scotland for his company JK Developments Ltd would be cancelled half way through the redevelopment of the 35 acre site outside Calne.

Mr Khanfer had planned to restore the three Royal Air Force hangers, turn one building into apartments, and build 12 homes as a neighbouring development.

However, he says the bank has told him that the latest stage in the phased payment he was expecting to be paid in November now won’t be.

He faces bankruptcy and the prospect of having wasted eight years of his life.

The father-of-two said: “Suddenly, or without notification, the bank basically stopped funding us.

“I am now trying really hard to find a solution, investors or funding to finish the work but it is getting desperate.

“In the current climate repossessions are available to everyone but I cannot see myself giving up whatsoever. I have put in too much blood and sweat to walk away.”

Work on the project was started in August 2007 and, as part of the planning permission, would have to be finished by July next year.

But the site now resembles a ghost town as contractors have been sent away, some unpaid for the work they have carried out.

“Officially, we will have worked three months without being paid by the bank,” said Mr Khanfer.

“We have got contractors and service providers who have not been paid.

“They were funding us £4.5 million and we have already spent £3 million.

“This is my debt now, plus I will have lost whatever profit would have come out of the housing at the end.”

Mr Khanfer, a former retail manager, had never intended to take on a project of this scale, and was simply looking to buy a farm house with a small grassed runway.

He said: “I fell in love with the officers’ mess and the inside of the hanger and as I had some money I thought I would do it. It is a nice site and the spot is marvellous, but even if I had to sell it, it is not likely to reach a fraction of its value.

“This is recognised nationally and internationally as an important site. It played an important part in both the first and second world wars and three Victorian Crosses came out of here.”

Mr Khanfer, whose family live in Morocco, is now preparing for several meetings with RBS, which was bailed out by the Government last year, over the next few weeks to try to find a solution.