WINCHESTER civic chief Stephen Godfrey has fully accepted the damning report on the council's handling of Silver Hill development.

Last week Cllr Godfrey had criticised aspects of the Claer Lloyd-Jones report that heavily criticised the way the council had handled the £150m scheme for shops, flats and parking.

Tory councillors on the overview and scrutiny committee had refused to accept the report but at Cabinet Cllr Godfrey conceded.

He said: "We accept the recommendations of the independent review and will deal with each to improve the way we work. We are going to take all the recommendations on board.

Lib Dem leader Lucille Thompson said: "I'm very pleased that you have completely turned around on this and are now prepared to accept the recommendations in full. It was quite shameful that member of overview and scrutiny acted when they were seeking to kick the report into the long grass."

Cllr Godfrey pointed out that the Lib Dems were in charge of the council when crucial decisions were made early in the Millennium He said: "It may not have been our mess that caused it, but it is ours to sort out."

The leader also said he believed rebel councillor Kim Gottlieb had no conflict of interest.

Cllr Gottlieb is a commercial property developer, and Ms Lloyd-Jones suggested he should be investigated. He has strenuously denied any conflict of interest, saying he was going a strange way to develop the site having sued his own council last year.

Cllr Godfrey said: "It is very difficult to investigate a negative and prove that he has not got a conflict of interest. To the best of my knowledge he has not got a conflict of interest in these matters. He has given that assurance and I'm willing to accept that assurance. The council should move forward on the basis that he has not."

Public speaker Patrick Davies, a former Labour city councillor, said: "What I'm most concerned about is the threat of an endless game of ping pong between Cabinet, overview and scrutiny and audit committee.

"I was alarmed by the way overview and scrutiny was handled last week. It is quite clear that members of the Conservative group came with prepared texts and read in a laborious way prepared by someone else in an attempt to undermine the (Loyd-Jones) report. I hope it won't happen again."

Cllr Godfrey answered: "I saw no-one reading a script. Nothing was prepared by me or my administration."

The council is preparing a report on Silver Hill to go to Cabinet on March 29.

In the short term decisions must be made on whether the council retains ownership of Kings Walk and what to do with the Friarsgate car park.

On transparency and winning back public trust Mr Godfrey said he would review all confidential information after 12 months to see if it should be made public.

He also said the diaries of all Cabinet members should be made public so people could see who councillors were meeting.

"If I can't tell my elderly neighbour what I'm doing, I should not be doing it. If I'm meeting someone people should be able to know about it."