The leader of a Hampshire council has resigned after admitting he “must take responsibility” for what the High Court has ruled were “unlawful” decisions over a £165m shopping centre scheme.
Prior to the High Court judicial review, the Conservative leader of Winchester City Council Robert Humby repeatedly refused to stand down over the Silver Hill development controversy. “As leader of the council my job is to lead the authority through this difficult process,” he insisted.
But after a judge ruled the council had acted unlawfully by allowing the developer, Henderson, to revise the shopping complex plans without putting the scheme back out to commercial tender he finally agreed to go.
“I stand by the decisions I and the cabinet made on Silver Hill,” Humby said in a statement. “Nevertheless, I was leader when the court decision was handed down and so must take responsibility for that judgement.
“The decisions on Silver Hill were taken after consulting with officers and taking external legal advice,” he added.
Deputy leader Victoria Weston and Chris Pines, chair of Winchester’s overview and scrutiny committee, have also resigned following the judicial review decision demanded by fellow city councillor, Kim Gottlieb.
“I’m genuinely sorry that things got to a point where they have had to resign. They are decent people and did their best to serve this city,” Gottlieb admitted.
“The problem they all faced is that, in respect of Silver Hill and, probably, other major projects, they had to rely heavily on advice they received from senior officers which simply wasn’t good enough, and sometimes misleading.”
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed it is considering whether to call-in the retail complex plans. As an interim measure the department has issued an order effectively freezing the application.
The multi-million pound Silver Hill scheme has been contentious almost from its unveiling. Planning permission for the redevelopment of the Silver Hill area of the city centre was initially granted in 2009, but put on hold as the recession deepened.
In July last year the authority allowed Henderson to apply for planning consent for significant changes to the original scheme. These were approved in December and work on redeveloping the area between The Broadway and Friarsgate was expected to start this spring.
Gottlieb — backed by his own Winchester Deserves Better campaign — has also continually claimed the revived scheme should have gone out to European Union-wide competitive tender.
