WINCHESTER City Council's ruling Liberal Democrats came under fire from the Conservatives for underspending on major capital projects, such as housing schemes.

But the Lib Dems pointed out that things had improved on the previous year, when the Conservatives were in charge.

Tory group leader Caroline Horrill told the scrutiny committee that scheme such as The Valley in Stanmore (£3.5m) and Hookpit at Kings Worthy (£1.4m) were making slow progress.

She said: "It is so disappointing to see many projects underspent. What is stopping Bishop's Waltham depot from being redeveloped? It is just not happening. What is stopping the work in Alresford on the car park? Is that still to do with the developer agreement?

"What is stopping so many things that people want and were expecting to come to fruition."

A report to the committee said at The Valley there were issues with Southern Water and SSE and at Hookpit there had been issue with the county council over footpath re-routing which had now been resolved.

Cllr Martin Tod, cabinet member for transformation, said a year ago as an opposition councillor he had given the Conservative s hard time over a similar issue. He said that things had actually improved, from a £17m shortfall on a £35m budget to this year's £34m and £14m.