THE GOVERNANCE scheme for a controversial garden village development has come under fire for "deficiencies" in the way project had been run.

As previously reported, Hart District Council (HDC) were exploring plans that would see 5,000 new houses built in a new village at Winchfield, a number which could double should developers see fit.

At a meeting of the council’s cabinet held in January 2020, members unanimously approved the proposed governance structure.

SEE ALSO: Shapley Heath governance structure decided at council meeting

Since then the council's cabinet agreed that the project should be concluded with immediate effect due deficiencies in the way project had been run.

In July, an audit committee met to consider the internal report commissioned to review the procedures, which explored one of the potential options to meet future housing demand in the district.

The report identied a number of deficiencies in the way the project had been managed including bad management of the project, lack of clarity around the overall expected expenditure and the timeframe of the project coinciding with the Covid pandemic.

Council leader David Neighbour said: “Hart District Council will learn from the mistakes made regarding the governance and procurement of this project. I welcome the work done by the Audit Committee and apologise to the people of Hart for these failings. We will provide appropriate training to ensure that this doesn't happen again.”

The project was curtailed in November 2021, when government funding failed to meet the requirements expect. 

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The report states: "The management of the Shapley Heath project did not meet the council’s required standards. The project did not follow the council’s standardised project structure and as a result the standard internal reporting processes were not used."

HDC has said it sincerely apologises for these deficiencies and promised to take the audit report findings on board.

Cllr James Radley, HDC deputy leader, added: “The residents of Hart deserve and should expect full transparency in the operation of the council. That this did not happen on this particular project is a grave concern. I can only apologise on behalf of all those involved and to state my determination that lessons shall be learnt."

Read the report in full here.