A REBEL Winchester councillor is embroiled in a row with his party's leadership over transparency issues.

Conservative councillor Kim Gottlieb has been accused of meeting a leisure centre construction contractor before procurement has started.

However Cllr Gottlieb denies any wrong doing, says he is the victim of a "deliberate smear" and is calling for council leader Stephen Godfrey to apologise over the allegations.

Although the statement read out at full council doesn't directly name Cllr Gottlieb, the Chronicle has seen emails which show he is the subject of the allegations.

It comes after the plans for the £34m leisure centre in Bar End moved a step closer with the council now putting £770,000 into developing a masterplan and launching consultations with local residents.

In an announcement at full council last Wednesday Cllr Godfrey said: "In the interests of transparency, I wish to inform the council that, last week, I received an email from a fellow councillor that included a proposal from a leading leisure centre construction contractor.

"The contractor wants to build our new leisure centre and they are prepared to give us a tremendous amount of advice and support, including the production of an outline scheme based on our spec, at no charge.

"My perception of this proposal was that it is wholly inappropriate and that it would be quite wrong for me or any other councillor to meet any potential contractor just prior to a procurement starting.

"I passed the email to the Chief Executive (Simon Eden) and the Monitoring Officer, who are working with our auditors to understand the extent and implications of the interactions with this potential contractor.

"I would like to remind all members of the contents of the email sent around by the Chief Executive last week, reminding councillors that contact with any contractor should always be made through the council's officers."

It is no secret that Cllr Gottlieb has been opposed to two major schemes in Winchester, firstly Silver Hill which he challenged in the High Court, and last week voted against 'Bidder B', derailing the Station Approach scheme.

Cllr Gottlieb however was given a major role by Cllr Godfrey, leading a cross-party committee to oversee major developments in the city.

He said: "The insinuation that I have done anything in any underhand way is very vigorously rejected. I have only ever acted in the best interests of the council and the city.

"This is, in my view, a deliberate smear likely to have been prompted by my opposition to the council's misguided efforts on Station Approach, perhaps with a bit of Silver Hill 'leftovers' thrown in. I will be asking the Leader for an apology."

Cllr Godfrey refused to apologise. He said: “As leader I have to account everything I do and I am acting on behalf of all councillors and the whole council and if there is things I do or I am involved in I need to make sure people are aware of it and I made a statement of something I am involved in and the statement was about me and what I do.

“I try to be transparent and if that causes embarrassment for Cllr Gottlieb or anyone else that is for them to deal with. I have nothing to apologise for.”

He also rejected claims by Cllr Gottlieb that he is being “smeared” and added: “I am sure that he will provide full information about discussions he has had with potential contractors when he is asked to do so.”