Silver Hill scheme rings alarm bells for Eileen (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Silver Hill scheme rings alarm bells for Eileen

2:01pm Thursday 28th December 2006 in Silver Hill By Warwick Payne

A TORY councillor has issued a stark warning about Winchester's multi-milion-pound Silver Hill redevelopment.

"There's no going back once we have committed to it," said St Barnabas ward's Eileen Berry.

"While we need regeneration, it must be in keeping with what has been here for a thousand years. The thing that worries me is the 260 dwellings. What's it supposed to be? Will it be a small estate within the city, with high rise blocks completely alien to a city as beautiful as Winchester?"

She questioned the need for as many as 40 more shops and called King's Walk "an embarrassment".

"The Brooks Centre never did take off the way it should have done," she said, adding that the one-way traffic system around the city would be adversely affected by the proposals.

She said: "A prominent mayor, Barbara Carpenter Turner, once said: Someone is going to come along and cut the arms and legs off the traffic system and leave just the torso and that will be the death of Winchester'. Her words could come true."