PLEASE bear with us.

That was the verdict of Winchester City Council leader Caroline Horrill who was quizzed about what’s going on with major council schemes in the city.

The council is aiming to spend nearly £150m on the Station Approach scheme as well as building a new leisure centre in Bar End to replace the one at River Park, and also create a vision for Silver Hill, and build a business centre in Bar End.

Station Approach stalled last summer, as the architects scheme was rejected at full council.

Silver Hill has gone back to square one, currently going through a public consultation to set out the vision for the area, and the replacement River Park Leisure is currently on track.

Liberal Democrat councillor Dominic Hiscock accused the council of not having an effective delivery plan.

Cllr Hiscock said: “The council has no clear plan on how it is going to deliver what it's going to deliver, this is of great concern to me and residents.

"We have no concept of what's going on at Bar End or what's going on anywhere. When will the council start to think about what it is going to do in this city and think about having the facilities we need."

Responding, Cllr Horrill said that the pause was due to the implementation of a new cabinet, following her appointment as council leader, and a "pause for thought" about how to proceed.

Cllr Horrill said: “Let me apologise to you all, we have been post cabinet for five weeks. We have taken the opportunity to stop and look at major projects and look at how we can be more effective, faster and involving the right people in the decision making.

"As you know in the beginning of March we have a brief for you about Station Approach, likewise the leisure centre and all our work on central regeneration and to say nothing is happening is wrong we have prioritised these projects.

"Please bear with us we are in dialogue with you all to be clear and concise to share with you the decision making."