A GIANT crane has started to lift roof trusses into place in Knutsford's newest street.

Workmen are using the timber to construct the roofs of new properties in Regent Street.

Site manager Carl Taylor said they needed a 30-metre crane because it could not be placed too near the shops.

"It couldn't go in Regent Street because it would get in the way and everything else would have to stop," he said. The 80-ton crane can be seen from four miles away, On Thursday it emerged that the work had fallen two weeks behind schedule due to design problems.

The street is now expected to be finished in May.

Developer Philip Hughes hopes the new shops, offices and restaurants will all open at the same time.

So far walls inside the former historic Royal George Hotel have been ripped out and rebuilt.

In two weeks the grade II* listed building will be covered in scaffolding and then covered in sheets so that workmen can begin repainting and cleaning it.

Once that is done it will look more like it did 100 years ago.

The sheets are designed to shield the building from wind and rain as well as stop any debris falling on shoppers in King Street.

Mr Taylor said the scaffolding was likely to be in place at least until Christmas.

"It is unfortunate that it is going to be until then, but it is just the way it has been scheduled," he said.