VETERAN councillor Marie King-Hele is complaining to Waverley's standards committee about the way the East Street redevelopment is being "pushed" through.

The Liberal Democrat councillor, who represents Farnham at borough and county council level, has cited three reasons for the move.

Firstly, she believes she and fellow Waverley councillors are not being given enough time to discuss the terms of the conditional contract, which could be agreed at the next meeting of the full Waverley Council on March 17.

She also believes that because the results of the public consultation will not be available for a further six to eight weeks, it is impossible to take account of the public's views when drawing up the conditions of the contract.

Finally, Mrs King-Hele argues that it will be impossible to achieve a consensus at the crucial March 17 meeting because it will be politicised due to the forthcoming council elections on May 1.

In a letter to Waverley officer Robin Pellow, head of committee and member services at the council, Mrs King-Hele writes: "The planned procedure almost certainly infringes the Government's Code of Conduct for Local Government and could be a matter for the Standards Board for England.

"Unless there is a postponement until after the election of a decision on the conditional contract, such a complaint is inevitable."

A Waverley spokesman said: "The East Street conditional contract is part of the legal process which aims to give the developers some security as they continue to develop their proposals.

"It's then going through the council's decision-making process in accordance with the constitution. We're not yet at the planning stage."

The spokesman added that Waverley monitoring officer Anne Bott is investigating whether Mrs King-Hele's complaint is a matter for the Standards Board for England.