Confidential Silver Hill meet slammed (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Confidential Silver Hill meet slammed

4:47pm Thursday 14th December 2006 in Silver Hill By Andrew Napier

COUNCIL chiefs have come under fire for meeting behind closed doors to discuss changes to the £100m redevelopment of Winchester city centre.

The Conservative cabinet met in confidential session yesterday (Wednesday) to discuss the financial implications of design alterations to the Silver Hill scheme.

Developer Thornfield Properties announced last October it would alter its plans after concerns were raised about the bulk and height of the scheme, including some blocks six storeys high.

However, it ruled out sweeping changes to the revamp which includes 35 shops, 280 homes, a bus station, medical centre and leisure facilities.

Speaking in the public session of the cabinet meeting, Alan Weeks, chairman of Winchester City Residents' Association, criticised the cabinet for discussing Silver Hill "behind closed doors," as an exempt item under the 1972 Local Government Act.

He accused the council of "an absence of transparency" over the redevelopment, which he said had resulted in a planning application "massively divergent" from the original planning brief.

Mr Weeks said: "As citizens and paymasters of the authority, we would like to know what is being planned and why the public and the press, the local watchdog which can report this to a wider community, are being excluded?"

Council leader George Beckett said the issues being discussed were confidential because they involved the commercial relationship of the developer and the council as landlord of part of the site.

He added: "Any amendments to the planning application will be subject to the normal scrutiny of the public."

After the meeting, Mr Weeks said the residents' association would like to see a "fundamental review", not just "peripheral amendments" to the plans.