THE potential area to be redeveloped in East Street could be doubled, with the announcement of the Woolmead's owners, Friends Provident, interest in the scheme.

After purchasing the car-park on the site of the old cinema, the company confirmed it will now be assessing the Woolmead in relation to the re-generation project.

Options open to them include partial refurbishment or demolition of the site, though some existing tenants leases run until 2008.

Property manager for Friends Provident, Paul Herrington. regarded the scheme an exciting project.

He said that acquiring the Iceland car-park had opened the doorway to its involvement, and hoped they would be selected as developers by Waverley.

Under regeneration plans, East Street itself would be turned into a pedestrian priority zone, with limited access to buses and taxis.

This would achieve an effect of drawing together facilities and developments on both sides of the street.

Having received expressions of interest from more-than 100 developers, the list of eight final contenders for the East Street scheme has now been released by Waverley Borough Council.

These include Sainsbury's, whose South Street store now stands adjacent to land within the scheme.

The list of established hopefuls is: Crest Nicholson Properties, Wilson Bowden Development, Berkley Homes, Countryside Properties, Sellar Property Group, the Raven Group and The Grainger Trust.

Captain Peter Burden, who heads the Waverley Special Interest Group (SIG) at the heart of the development, greeted the news of Friends Provident as "everything they had hoped for".

He said that Friends Provident's and Sainburys involvement now "doubled the minimum aim of the scheme".

"The quality and experience of all the short-listed firms, and their team's architects, should ensure that we achieve a first -class development.

"I am particularly encouraged that both neighbouring landowners, Sainsbury's and Friends Provident have come forward.

"The potential to include their property within an extended scheme adds a new and exciting dimension to the development," he said.

Captain Burden was keen to stress the public will be kept informed of any progress of the development through the pages of The Herald.

He addded that any observations and comments would be seriously considered throughout the process.

According to Captain Burden, whether those short-listed would form building conglomerates for a combined scheme would be down to the companies themselves.

Responses from the eight developers were due to be received by July. He was confident final plans for the scheme would be produced by the end of the year.

Fellow SIG member, Dr Rosemary Thomas, said she was delighted with the progress of the scheme, and that there had been so much interest in it.

She said: "The easy part has now been done by our agents (Cluttons) in selecting the eight companies on the basis of financial backing and their track records.

The difficult part is to get the commitment of developers to providing the things the public want to see there. These include a cinema, leisure and community facilities, and a youth drop-in centre."

She added that if this mixed development was not achieved, then the scheme could not be regarded as the success they had forecast.