A HAMPSHIRE city’s re-elected leader has signalled his commitment to a troubled multi-million pound development as he looks to persuade a reluctant operator to run a “white elephant” bus station.

Winchester City Council chief Frank Pearson has given his clearest indication yet that the Silver Hill scheme is set to go ahead with a new station – even if nobody can afford to run it.

Co-developer TIAA Henderson Real Estate is reviving £150m plans for shops and homes first approved in 2009 after their preferred scheme was halted in the courts.

Meanwhile, an independent inquiry into the Guildhall’s controversial handling of the city centre project has been delayed until September.

Cllr Pearson said review leader Claer Lloyd-Jones has hinted it will be “uncomfortable reading for some”.

He said: “I don’t want Henderson to drop out any more than they want us to drop out. I want that area redeveloped and the only thing on the table at present is that 2009 application.

“If that works and they can come up with a satisfactory answer to those conditions then that’s what’s going to be there, because otherwise we put the whole development back six, seven, eight years, and I don’t think that’s good for Winchester.”

Cllr Pearson, pictured below, added: “If Stagecoach is reluctant to go in to run it, it would be a white elephant, so quite clearly I don’t want to see that.”

Daily Echo: New Winchester City Council leader Frank Pearson

Andrew Dyer, managing director of Stagecoach South, reiterated that the firm cannot afford to run a new station alongside its Bar End depot, but added: “If somebody wanted to pay us to operate bus conductors to run a bus station then we would do it.”

The city council’s apparent determination to push on with the plans will anger Cllr Kim Gottlieb, the rebel city councillor who beat Henderson at the High Court.

He said: “When Henderson arrived on the scene in 2010 at the height of the recession, it’s easy to understand why the council might have thought that it had no options. But that is not the case now.

"It is getting another chance now and in the best interests of the city, it really has to say goodbye to Henderson.”