will be able to get their first taste of what a re-developed East Street might look like this weekend as eight would-be developers unveil plans that do not include the Redgrave Theatre building but promise cinema, town squares, affordable housing and the retention of Brightwell House.

From today (Friday) until Sunday, Waverley council is inviting the public to the Bush Hotel to view each of the plans proposed by the eight short-listed developers to take on the project.

Only one will get the contract; there will be no "cherry picking" of attractive features from the eight submissions.

None of the eight include the Redgrave in their visions, but some promise theatre provision. All eight retain and restore the adjacent Listed Brightwell House.

And in a popular move, every developer includes cinema in their plans, typically a three-screen venue. Cinema has topped residents' wish lists for what they would like the re-development to include.

The much-derided Woolmead shops and office block is, for the moment, only addressed by one developer, its owners, Friends Provident, who propose to demolish part of the 1960's structure and re-clad remaining parts.

Other developers may tackle the Woolmead in later stages of their re-development schemes.

The Brightwell Bowling Club remains in all submissions - as Waverley specified it should - and all proposals include a Waverley-requested commitment to at least 30 per cent affordable homes - out of an average of about 300 homes per scheme - and a green space leading down to River Wey.

Visitors to the exhibition, which takes place between 10 am and 4 pm today and tomorrow and between 11 am and 4 pm on Sunday, will be handed a questionnaire by consultants staging the exhibition for Waverley, Surrey Social and Market Research.

It will ask what features of the eight developments people like, or are concerned about, and if they feel in need of clarification.

The questionnaire will mark the end of the public's direct involvement in the two-year consultation process, with the job of proposing a developer to fellow Waverley councillors falling to Captain Peter Burden, who has led the project and chairs the council's East Street Redevelopment Special Interest Group.

Talking to The Herald at a specially arranged preview of the eight submissions, Capt. Burden said he was pleased with what developers have proposed.

"I think they've given us a very good mix, varying enormously. This is what we hoped for."

Declining to name names, Capt. Burden continued: "I have probably three or four schemes in mind that will do the job. I could point out shortcomings in all of them, equally I could point out things I like."

For the first time, Capt. Burden revealed that only one developer will be chosen. Previously Waverley had said any number might have been considered.

"We cannot pick and mix. We take one of these schemes and we've got to accept it as it stands, we can negotiate change within it," he said.

But seemingly at odds with that stated search for one developer alone is a public questionnaire which does not invite respondents to state their preferred scheme.

Addressing this, Capt. Burden said: "We could ask people to list their favourites one to eight but I don't think that would work.

"I've been told by SSMR (Surrey Social and Market Research, the consultants staging the exhibition who drafted the questionnaire) that it would be inconclusive.

"But people can put their preferences down if they like, but I now really do feel that I'm reaching the limit of what I can do."