IT WAS a flagship project for the last Tory-controlled administration in Southampton, and now it is a flagship project for the current Labour-controlled authority.

But far from being a focal point for celebration, the proposed regeneration project for the city’s Townhill Park estate is now mired in controversy.

As this paper reports today on pages 8 and 9, the multi-million-pound project to replace 428 ageing homes with 672 new flats is now behind schedule, has not even begun, and is overbudget by a sum the authority will not reveal.

Initially priced at £100m and presented by the Tory group as the first in a series of similar projects to transform the estates of the city by selling off the properties to private owners, it was taken over by the Labour group who announced plans to keep the completed homes in public ownership.

Now there are calls for the city’s Labour housing supremo to go and bitter accusations that will be played out at a heated council meeting planned for tomorrow.

Whether the completed project should be sold off to pay for more projects or kept in public ownership is a debate worth having.

But first the council should come clean on how much public money is now being spent.

At the heart of the dispute are the residents of the area, still waiting for their new homes.

They should be the council’s priority.