THE public will not be consulted during a design contest for multi-million pound plans to rebuild Winchester's station area, a meeting heard.

Civic chiefs last night approved a brief for architects vying to create the Station Approach scheme.

But lawyers have warned that taking on residents' views in such a competition would breach new EU procurement rules.

Bosses at Winchester City Council, who have already held several consultation sessions, defended their record and said the contest would allow experts to choose between five designs rather than presenting one for public scrutiny.

The public can also comment on the project, for offices, housing, parking, transport infrastructure and more, after a design jury has recommended the best scheme.

Lawyers at Trowers and Hamlin have told the council that consultation would hinder the panel's ability to assess "objective criteria" and could open the council to judicial review.

City leaders, keen to be seen to listen to the public after a storm of controversy over the Silver Hill development, said they had hoped to include consultation in the contest.

Interest groups and opposition councillors questioned the Conservative cabinet at a special meeting to approve the brief on Thursday.

It sets out the council's vision for land between Sussex Street (Carfax) and Andover Road (Cattle Market), inviting architects to creatively tackle the needs of residents, workers and visitors.

Chris Higgins, of the City of Winchester Trust, said the paper appeared to prioritise finance over good design.

He said: "It's a real danger, if you've got such a commercial priority, that the shortlist doesn't allow the best innovative brains to design the best scheme for Winchester.
"You should be the guardians of the heritage of this fine city. You would be undermining it if you don't appreciate these aspects of the architectural challenge."

Mr Higgins and several Liberal Democrat councillors also criticised the lack of study into how people move through the area.

Corporate director Steve Tilbury said: "The whole thing is at what point do we start to say 'let's creative positive change' as opposed to simply analysing everything for so long that actually we've lost the ability to deliver what we want to deliver. It's better to know everything, but almost nobody starts from that position."

Mr Tilbury has warned earlier this year that Winchester could "miss the tide" if Station Approach is delayed.

Cabinet agreed to drop from the brief a specific demand for 360 parking spaces on the Carfax site, adding a section highlighting the important of carbon efficiency after pleas from environmental groups and sustainability portfolio holder Cllr Frank Pearson.

Questioned over consultation, Antonia Perkins, head of policy, said: "We're hoping that although members of the public can't actually vote on the design, some of their views have been put forward in the design brief.

"We've been very careful when selecting the jury together to make sure we keep our confidence in them, and we're confident they have the best interests of Winchester at heart."

The panel is expected to include a local councillor, an architect based outside of Winchester, a county council architect, a local design expert, a representative from the City of Winchester Trust and other professionals.

A shortlist will be drawn up in November with designs for the Carfax site due by January.

They will go on show in February but public comments will not be taken.

Cabinet will consider the recommendations and award the contract in March, with the Cattle Market section to be determined at a later date.

After the meeting, Mr Higgins suggested "prescriptive" demands on how much office space should be built on each half may be driven by commercial demands from major employers such as Denplan, understood to want to move into Station Approach.