CITY councillors came under fire from business leaders over plans to develop Winnall as a major trading centre.

The council has contracted consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff to develop a ten-year plan to improve infrastructure across the industrial site and residential areas.

But at a business breakfast last Thursday, company owners hit out at council officials citing long-term problems such as the road layout and a lack of off-street parking.

Local businessman Keith Webb said parking in the area was “an absolute pain”, highlighting the Post Office as one example.

“There’s no parking for all their postmen – that never should have happened,” he said.

“One answer to that is that we should have had a multi-storey car park built.

“The council owns all this land – too much of it in my opinion – and the Post Office should have had more parking for their postmen. Now they take up all the side-road parking.”

Local traders agreed parking was a significant issue, with some claiming their own members of staff were unable to park nearby.

Others said the whole road infrastructure “an absolute nightmare”, and called for a park-and-ride to ease congestion and allow for regular transport links from the city to bring in more custom.

Paul Morgan, of Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, said another problem was the increasing number of retail outlets creeping up in the area and urged for a more trade-focused approach.

“If you want to make this estate attractive to technology, once we have cited the infrastructure, it won't really change unless the council confirmed the profile of business occupying these estates,” he said.

“For this to work there would have to be a strong control over the type of occupation otherwise it’s not going to achieve what it’s setting out to do.”

Christ Turner, executive director for Winchester BID, said: “I would agree with some long-term flexibility. It needs to be business-focused rather than just manufacturing or technology.”

But one business owner said more needed to be done to enable traders to operate more efficiently and pleaded for better local broadband.

“If you want these estates to become more technology-driven you must ensure you get faster broadband,” he said.

“How long do we have to wait for fibre optic? It’s just ridiculous.”

Winchester City Council leader Rob Humby said the meeting’s aim was “to deliver the ambitions of the people who live and work here and drive this economic force for the good.

“The whole reason for this is to create debate so we know what these problems are," he said.

"What we have got to do is find out what the business issues are, what the residents’ issues are and join them.

"I meet businesses every week that want to come to Winchester.

“I want to keep these businesses in Winchester. I don’t want them to go to Southampton or Eastleigh.”