THE leading campaigner against a major Hampshire scheme has vowed to fight on despite a legal setback.

A High Court judge has refused permission for a judicial review against Winchester City Council over the Silver Hill scheme.

The action was brought by city councillor Kim Gottlieb who says the £150 million scheme for homes and shops will wreck the city centre.

The setback comes the same day as a senior Liberal Democrat city councillor, Sue Nelmes has left the group to allow her to speak out over the controversial development.

Cllr Nelmes told the Daily Echo yesterday: “I am very unhappy about Silver Hill and I want to be able to speak out, to speak as myself. I’m guilty about Silver Hill as I was on the Cabinet and in the ruling party when the original plans were passed.

“I didn’t like the architecture, but I went along with it because of the social housing and new bus station.

All the little shopkeepers from Kings Walk were to have lock-up shops. But everything I wanted has disappeared,” she added.

The developer Henderson has submitted a new application to amend the scheme by dropping the bus station and 100 units of social housing.

Cllr Gottlieb, who has formed Winchester Deserves Better, challenged the city council’s decision in August to agree to allow Henderson to propose changes to the redevelopment.

The challenge alleged that the council should not have agreed to the changes, and also raised issues about the value the council was obtaining for land which the council owns within the scheme.

The judge concluded that the development agreement with Henderson provided for alterations to the scheme, and that the council had taken professional valuation advice on its land interests. Accordingly, he refused permission for the challenge.

The court ordered Cllr Gottlieb, himself a property developer, to pay costs of £7,500 to the council.

Cllr Gottlieb told the Daily Echo last night that he would appeal: “The court decision is disappointing.

“The bigger picture is that whilst it may be ‘first blood’ to the council and they may feeling very pleased with themselves, the Winchester Deserves Better campaign is undaunted and intends to carry on through the courts and on every other front, to put a stop to the idiocy that is the current Silver Hill proposal.”

A planning committee scheduled to decide the new application has been postponed from November 10 to December 11.