AN extra dimension is set to be added to the already tangled East Street redevelopment saga by a rival proposal being drawn up for an East Street landowner. The investment company, F & C, holds a crucial part of the land involved in the Crest Nicholson Sainsbury's (CNS) scheme - the former cinema site, currently a car park. Now it has instructed a well-known local firm of architects to submit a planning application for its plot and adjoining council-owned land. The Herald was told by the architects, Lyons+Sleeman+Hoare, that the much smaller plan will contain no four-storey building, will steer clear of Brightwell Gardens, tennis courts, bowling green, The Marlborough Head and the flood plain and will enlarge Dogflud car park. The firm, which was responsible for Farnham's award-winning Lion and Lamb yard, is working towards a mixed use development consisting of 20 - 25 shops, a cinema and new theatre sharing the same building, restaurants and 40 to 50 apartments. It has been argued that 239 residential units are the minimum needed to secure the viability of the CNS scheme. But F & C's architects maintain their smaller scheme will be viable nevertheless, as there will be no need for underground parking or development of the Riverside for extra parking and relocation of the tennis courts. The company, which also owns Woolmead, was one of the unsuccessful contestants in the competition six years ago that saw CNS selected as Waverley's development partner. It has resolutely resisted attempts by Waverley Council to negotiate inclusion of its land in the CNS project. As a consequence, the council has long been aware that a Compulsory Purchase Order and resulting public inquiry could lie ahead if its partnership with CNS in the project is to bear fruit. Meanwhile, determination of the CNS planning application by Waverley councillors will be held up by an estimated four months by the need to amend the plans to meet flood risk requirements, it was announced on Tuesday. The developer has confirmed that it is to submit amended plans. "The amendments will propose additional flood compensation measures in light of the revision by the Environment Agency of CNS's flood level calculations," Waverley Council said in a statement. "The changes are primarily to the landscaping proposals, although some slight modifications will also be made to the car park ventilation. The buildings will not change." Richard Gates, the council's portfolio holder for East Street, said: "The planned changes are not major and do not change the principal elements of the scheme in any shape or form. "CNS has advised that it will take several weeks to make the changes due to the level of technical drawing required across the full set of plans. In the light of this, we are anticipating that the plans will be submitted in mid August." It is now anticipated that the meeting of the joint planning committee which will determine the CNS planning application will take place on October 1. Mr Gates said he was "a bit in the dark" over the F & C proposals. "Normally, as the landowners, we would have expected to have heard from the people who are instructing the architects. "I need to talk to the potential developers. I don't immediately understand the point," he said, pointing out that the council is contracted in a development agreement with CNS and "until and unless that fails" would not consider adding its own land to another scheme. Neither did he see the council's failure, as yet, to secure the F & C land for the CNS scheme as an insurmountable hurdle. "The council has authority, if necessary, for compulsory purchase procedures. They are foreseen in the contract, although I don't welcome them,' he advised.
