IT is the decision which some say will wreck or renew Winchester city centre.
The £165 million Silver Hill regeneration of shops and houses is due to be decided tomorrow.
Planning chiefs will meet at 9.30am to consider controversial changes to the city centre project, which has seen a string of protests, petitions and legal challenges over almost two decades.
Campaigners say the development will ruin Winchester’s unique heritage, while civic and business leaders say regeneration will create jobs and attract shoppers.
The latest controversy in a debate dating back to the 1990s surrounds developer Henderson, which has proposed to drop affordable housing and a bus station from a scheme originally granted by civic chiefs in 2009.
This morning’s special planning committee, going ahead despite the city council facing a High Court challenge, will hear from councillors and campaigners on both sides.
Cllr Kim Gottlieb is taking his own Tory administration to judicial review over their decision to allow Henderson to propose the contentious changes.
A live blog featuring updates, pictures and reaction from the meeting will run on the Hampshire Chronicle website from 9am tomorrow.
City officers will present applications to amend the scheme and take questions from the 14-strong planning committee before a public speaking session.
The final list of speakers is yet to be finalised but is thought to include Cllr Gottlieb and former city councillor Karen Barratt. More than 100 people are expected to pack the Guildhall's Bapsy Hall.
A decision is expected by late afternoon.
An artist's impression of the Silver Hill Scheme
This summer, Henderson dropped 110 homes, a bus station, office space and all on-site affordable housing from its plans. The firm will pay £1 million to the city council for affordable housing elsewhere, rising to a maximum of £2 million if it turns more than a 15 per cent profit.
Martin Perry, Henderson’s director of development, said Silver Hill will deliver “desperately needed” jobs, shops and homes.
“Crucially, it is also a scheme that is commercially viable and can be delivered,” he added.
Chris Turner, of Winchester Business Improvement District said: “Winchester faces stiff competition from the likes of Southampton and Basingstoke and if we are not prepared to back a major investment in our city centre people will only continue to look elsewhere.”
Cllr Gottlieb, who led a march of more than a thousand residents against the council’s approach to development a fortnight ago, will present his own alternative CGI images of Henderson's plans to the committee tomorrow.
He claims official artist’s impressions show only small parts of the site and cast unnatural sunlight onto streets such as Friarsgate (below).
Friarsgate from Middle Brook Street after the Silver Hill redevelopment, according to Cllr Kim Gottlieb
Cllr Gottlieb has also held ‘conversation days’, encouraging residents to create alternative proposals, and commissioned CGI images of the current scheme, which he says has been unrealistically portrayed by Henderson.
The City of Winchester Trust, which supports the scheme despite concerns about affordable housing and excess retail space, said Cllr Gottlieb was “peddling unrealistic dreams”.
In a statement, the trust said: “We do not consider these reservations to be grounds for a trust planning objection to the development as a whole.
“On balance we consider the scheme well designed, appropriate for its location and ... good for Winchester.”
Cllr Kim Gottlieb
Henderson had hoped to start work on Silver Hill this winter if plans were approved, with the first shops opening in mid-2017 and final homes complete by summer 2018.
Preliminary work, including exploratory boreholes, began on site earlier this year.
But even if planners give the green light tomorrow, the diggers will be held back until the result of the judicial review, due to take place on January 28 and 29.
A city council spokesman confirmed the scheme will lie in wait until the judge rules on whether Winchester City Council unlawfully allowed Henderson to propose dropping affordable housing and a bus station from the scheme without putting it out to tender.
Cllr Gottlieb last month revealed to the Chronicle that he is considering another offensive against what he called an “improper planning application process”.
Work must begin before March 2016 under the terms of a compulsory purchase order made by the council to buy the land.
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