WINCHESTER City Council will make no variations to the development agreement of Silver Hill until a commissioned independent review is completed, a meeting heard.

Cabinet members agreed unanimously to officer's recommendations, at their meeting on Wednesday, April 15, to leave any changes to the £165 million development alone until such time Claer Lloyd-Jones produces her report.

As reported by the Daily Echo, the solicitor has been tasked with investigating Winchester City Council's controversial handling of the scheme; a £200,000 enquiry which was announced in February.

At a meeting held earlier this month, Cllr Kim Gottlieb and Cllr Martin Tod proposed that the council should continue to comply with its obligations and responsibilities under the Development Agreement by making no variations until the review was completed and any of its recommendations would then be acted upon.

It also stated that the council would seek at least two external opinions of any future viability calculations relating to the scheme.

Council leader, Cllr Frank Pearson, said: “We have requested information from Henderson and to this date we have had no response from Henderson at all so we are waiting a response to see if they are meeting the conditions outstanding on the 2009 planning consent.”

Corporate director, Steve Tilbury, added: “Henderson are working towards fulfilling the prior conditions that need to be met for the 2009 scheme. We do not know what their precise timetable is but we do know they're working on that and material has been coming from Henderson for us to look at but any formal consideration will be brought to Council to look at.”

Cllr Kelsie Learney, who backed the original motion during the meeting held April 1, said: “Viability has been a really big question and it's something that's coming up with residents. I think it's really important that the public have confidence to any figures we're putting forward and I particularly welcome that need to get two separate figures submitted.”