THE councillor who has spent the last three and a half years leading the drive to redevelop East Street fears the project is in "considerable danger" now that the Liberal Democrats have taken control of Waverley Borough Council.

Conservative councillor Captain Peter Burden was a member of the policy-making executive in the last Tory administration and portfolio holder for the East Street regeneration.

In March, Capt Burden and his colleagues used their majority to push through the signing of a conditional contract with developers Crest Nicholson and the Sainsbury's Property Company. The contract was unanimously opposed by opposition Lib Dems.

As well as winning control of Waverley Council from the Conservatives in last week's local elections, the Lib Dems have strengthened their hold on Farnham Town Council.

The Lib Dems needed 29 seats for overall control of Waverley. They won 30, up from 24 at the last elections four years ago. The Conservatives won 27, down from 31 in 1999. The Tories won just four out of the 18 Farnham seats. The turnout was 41.6 per cent, down on 1999's 43.7.

Meanwhile, voters in last Thursday's polls returned 14 Liberal Democrats and four Conservatives to the town council. The parties previously had 12 and six members respectively.

The Lib Dems pledged in their election manifesto to scale down the East Street scheme - ruling out four-storey buildings - and will secure road, retail and environmental impact studies before a final scheme is agreed.

But all this will slow down the timetable and scare off the developer partners, according to Capt Burden.

"If they do everything they said they were going to do in their manifesto, they (the developers) will not go along with it. The whole thing is in considerable danger," he said.

Asked how he felt about losing the East Street redevelopment portfolio, Capt Burden, who was re-elected to his Farnham Bourne ward last week, said: "I feel very, very sad because I would have driven it through, I know I would have done, and I would have got exactly what Farnham wanted."

Asked to comment on the Lib Dems taking control of the council, Anthony Shapland, senior executive at the Sainsbury's Property Company, said: "We are committed to Farnham and to regenerating the East Street area into a part of the town that everyone can enjoy.

"With the development agreement in place, we are keen to work with the new council to continue to progress a scheme that is right for Farnham."

The conditional contract has a so-called stop date of December 2006, at the end of which, if no satisfactory planning application has been submitted, Waverley and the developers can extend the contract or withdraw.

l Local council election results - page 3