WINCHESTER needs to get cracking on drawing up plans for the major redevelopment of the Station Approach-Andover Road area or it will ‘miss the tide’, a meeting heard.

The city council believes the time is right to develop the area around the train station.

Civic chiefs want to develop large offices to attract major employers into the city to replace the declining public sector.

The city council owns large chunks of the area, at the cattle market car park and near the station set to be augmented soon when it completes the purchase of land from the county council.

The area is dubbed the ‘gateway to Winchester’ with 16,000 people using the train station every day and is set to get even busier when the 2,000-home Barton Farm is built a mile up the road.

The town forum was told public consultation with local residents, landowners and the business community will be launched within weeks.

A brochure will set out the case for regeneration and small meetings will test the ideas.

Then a design competition will be held with architects asked to come forward with ideas.

There will be public feedback to the competition which will be judged by an expert panel. The chosen team will then work up the ideas into a planning application.

Steve Tilbury, corporate director, told the town forum in a briefing paper: “Timing is important and the current position within the economic cycle means the council is well-placed to take advantage of the commercial appetite for high-quality development and for achieving leases for occupation on terms which will fund the quality of the urban design that we aspire to. Significant delay will mean that we may ‘miss the tide.’”

David Ashe, a local architect, said: “Time is of the essence but so is quality. This development is going to be around for a very long time. Quality must not go out the window in the search for a quick result.”

Labour leader Chris Pines said: “None of us (councillors) are against potential redevelopment of this part of town. It is run down. It is important for the commercial community but not just them, it is a transport hub. It has to be with the agreement of the town.”

Cllr Martin Tod warned that there would never been universal agreement. “There are irreconcilable interests. Some people will want ‘A’ and some people won’t want ‘A’. Our job is to reconcile that.”

Forum chairman Robert Hutchison said a movement study was vital to establish how people used the area and the vital decisions about car parking.

The Cattle Market car park would be built on with a new multi-storey car park suggested for Gladstone Street.