A VISION of a refurbished and enlarged Brightwell House boasting a theatre, flats and offices has been drawn up by Waverley councillor and retired Farnham architect Michael Blower.

Mr Blower, whose ward the building is located in, is fervently against his council's moves to de-list the 1792 building.

A member of the working party that won the Brightwell's listed status in 1969, Mr Blower proposes extending the building and wrapping it round the adjoining Redgrave Theatre.

The new Redgrave would be split in two, with a ground-floor deck for theatre and youth organisations and boasting a restaurant and bar.

The upper deck would be a hall used for conferences, performances, cinema and indoor events such as indoor bowls.

Earlier this month Waverley councillors recommended that colleagues on its ruling executive body should request that Brightwell House be de-listed so that potential developers of the surrounding East Street site have the option of demolishing the adjoining Redgrave building.

Captain Peter Burden, who heads the East Street redevelopment group has said such an "unencumbered site" would attract developers.

But Mr Blower believes that his plans have enough of a commercial element to interest potential developers.

"I think if the developers were several entrepreneurial types they would be interested. The lease on the building is 125 years, which is an enormous incentive to make a lot of money."

The artistic activities offered by such a revitalised Brightwell House would appear to be in competition with the Maltings arts programme, already supported by Waverley.

Asked to reconcile this, Mr Blower said: "I think we should keep the Maltings as a community centre but I feel that an arts centre is going to be much better in East Street.

"Brightwell House is a very square building and in planning, the squarer the shape the more economical the building. The Maltings is very linear and is going to be costly to alter."

Mr Blower continued: "I feel that anything one can do that is a positive encouragement to re-use Brightwell House and see what a great building it is would mean we can all be winners - the theatre people, the council and the public."

Members of Waverley's executive committee are likely to rubber-stamp this month's recommendation from the council's scrutiny committee to seek the Brightwell's de-listing, next Tuesday.

If the de-listing is pursued, the Department of the Environment will have the final say.