TH Real Estate has withdrawn from a planned appeal against a ruling that thwarted its £165m redevelopment scheme for Winchester city centre.
The developer’s decision to walk away from the scheduled appeal brings to an end years of planning for the redevelopment, and means that Winchester City Council will have to go back to the drawing board and carry out a fresh procurement exercise.
In February 2015, the council was brought to account by one of its own councillors for failing to carry out a procurement exercise, reopening redevelopment proposals to other developers, when major changes were made to the scheme, first granted planning permission in 2009.
Lang J quashed the council’s decision, made in August 2014, to approve alterations to a decade-old development agreement for the Winchester city centre redevelopment, which included scrapping plans for a new bus station and removing a requirement for 35% affordable housing.
While the council did not pursue an appeal, TH Real Estate did, and a Court of Appeal hearing was scheduled to take place on 24 or 25 May. But the developer has now withdrawn its appeal, meaning the High Court judgment will stand and the redevelopment plans will be thrown back open to bidders.
A Court of Appeal official said that the appeal is scheduled to be dismissed with consent, subject to approval by the court. A spokeman for TH Real Estate confirmed that the appeal had been withdrawn, but declined to comment.
Conservative councillor Kim Gottlieb said: “The council’s project management of this strategic development has been farcical, but deeply sad too because it represents a major missed opportunity to enhance the city’s future economic prosperity and to reinforce the city’s heritage.”
He added: “The time has come for the city council to acknowledge and apologise for its past errors and to begin to make genuine efforts to do very much better in the future.”
