By Andrew Napier and Duncan Geddes

WINCHESTER’s civic chief has accused the leading anti-Silver Hill campaigner of “undermining the democratic process.”

City council leader Rob Humby attacked his Tory party colleague Kim Gottlieb for the way he is challenging the £165m plans for the redevelopment of the city centre.

Cllr Gottlieb says the scheme is outdated and has launched his ‘alternative vision’ for the rundown area. He is seeking a judicial review of the scheme which is due to be considered by the planning committee next month.

Developer Henderson is proposing a scheme of shops and flats and wants to scrap the bus station, offices and affordable housing.

Cllr Humby, in a written answer to a question at the Council meeting last Thursday, said: “Unlike Cllr Gottlieb I do not see it as my role to undermine the democratic process by promoting alternatives which have yet to be shown to be feasible.”

Cllr Gottlieb has written to several developers and said ten have written back to say they are interested in taking on the scheme.

Cllr Humby said: “I find it disappointing that Cllr Gottlieb has chosen to use substantial resources to try to ensure that a scheme his own council has supported over many years does not go ahead.”

Meanwhile Cllr Kim Gottlieb held a series of open ‘conversation days’ last weekend and invited the public to the Wessex Hotel to view CGI images of the scheme, discuss the development and fill in questionnaires with their views on potential alternatives.

Cllr Gottlieb commissioned his own images of the proposed development which he said provide a more "realistic" impression.

Hampshire Chronicle: Kim Gottlieb by Kings Walk, set for demolition

Cllr Kim Gottlieb

Responding to Cllr Humby's accusation, he said: “For him to suggest that what I’m doing is undermining democracy suggests to me he needs a new dictionary. He has a very strange sense of democracy. This [the Wessex Hotel event] has been about as democratic as it can get.

“I would dispute that this was a robust democratic process in the first place. There was no procurement, there was no competitive tender at the outset, and the story that lots of members of the public are fond of telling me is back in the days of the Brooks: the public all chose one scheme and the council chose another.”

He said the current proposals were “absurd, intellectually lazy and inept. The idea is trying to do something creative and beautiful and attractive. If it takes us six months, if it takes us five years, let’s take the time to get it right. Time is not an issue as far as I’m concerned. The only thing that matters is getting it right.

“The idea that I’m doing this because I want to be the developer is absurd. Launching an all-out assault on the council is probably not the best way to make friends.

“If Henderson were no longer the developer, in order to comply with procurement procedure, the council would have to go out to the open market and that’s really what it should be doing now.”