A PROPERTY expert has publicly accused civic chiefs of “misleading” a design jury who voted in the failed Station Approach scheme.

Chris Higgins, of the City of Winchester Trust, accused the city council of altering the decision made by the design jury who, he claims, voted for Scheme C (Design Engine from Winchester) and not Scheme B (Hopkins Architects from London) as announced earlier this year.

At the overview and scrutiny committee on Monday, he said he was furious when he heard the claims. “I certainly believe the jury were misled,” claimed Mr Higgins. “In an email sent to the council by one of the jury members, they raised a number of issues with the competition which I am not happy about.

“The jury actually voted for Scheme C and three or four members of that jury wrote letters to the council expressing their concerns. However, these letters remain unanswered.”

Mr Higgins, former director of estates at the University of Winchester, added: “I ask the council that these lessons are learnt. You have spent something like £400,000 on a failed scheme and this is just so sad for Winchester.

“I still want Station Approach to be successful but I am furious at the information that I have been told.”

He also expressed his fury at the unprecedented way more than half of the architectural firms in the competition dropped out.

However, corporate director Steve Tilbury slammed the claims. “For Mr Higgins to make comments about unprofessionalism within the council (and that it misled the jury) is completely unjust. I look forward to him substantiating these claims before the next committee meeting (on November 30) so I can investigate them fully.”

Following the comments, The City of Winchester Trust wanted to clarify that Mr Higgins was speaking at the meeting on behalf of himself and not as a representative of the trust.

Nevertheless, the new proposals to restart the controversial scheme, including a new flexible brief, were well received by the committee.

The revised plans will see the city council work with Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to search for an architect.

This decision is a stark contrast to that of the previous scheme that saw a number of firms compete in a design competition – an idea that has since been strongly criticised.

The multi-million-pound scheme collapsed in July.

One of the concerns made about the previous scheme was the inflexible design brief. However, Mr Tilbury has confirmed the new scheme has a very flexible brief.

Cllr Linda Gemmell agreed that this was “an improvement from the previous scheme.”

Nevertheless, council leader Stephen Godfrey said civic chiefs want to see a new design developed over the next 12 months.

The leader added that the council now needs to act “as quick as we can” to make sure the £7.7 million LEP (Local Enterprise Partnerships) funding is not lost.

Michael Carden, vice chairman of the City of Winchester Trust, said: “We are pleased about the consultation with RIBA and it seems to be constructive.

“The proposals look very promising but we would like to have a meeting with the leader to check certain concerns.”

The paper was approved by the committee, with the addition that a local resident should be present on the design panel – which comprises of local business representatives, architects and councillors. This will now be sent to Cabinet.

A special Station Approach meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny committee is to be held on November 30 at Winchester Guildhall.