WINCHESTER Labour Party has launched a survey to help members decide their stance on the Silver Hill scheme.

Local members set up stall in the High Street to gauge public feeling over the troubled £165 million development.

Labour wants to use recent legal trouble as an opportunity to “reassess what Winchester wants” and “put real pressure on developers to deliver it”, a spokesman said.

The party’s group leader at Winchester City Council, Cllr Chris Pines, resigned as overview and scrutiny committee chairman in February after the High Court ruled councillors had unlawfully kept the scheme from tender.

Echoing the words of many anti-Silver Hill campaigners, Mark Chaloner, parliamentary candidate for Winchester and Chandler’s Ford, said: “After the saga of the Silver Hill court ruling, it is crucial that the council and the developer embark on an exercise of genuine public consultation before going back to the drawing board on the scheme.

 “The Conservatives running the council and the Liberal Democrats on the planning committee which consented the revised scheme clearly don’t have the political will to stand up for the interests of local people against a big developer”.

Winchester city councillor Janet Berry added: “Winchester is in the midst of a housing crisis. When I speak to local people about Silver Hill they think it’s a disgrace that the council hasn’t fought for affordable housing in a regeneration scheme that is so important for the city”.