Totton residents are fuming after it was revealed that funding for a new-look town centre could be cut by £10m.

Residents have joined councillors in condemning moves to spend only £12m on the main shopping area instead of the £22m originally proposed.

As reported in yesterday's Daily Echo, Hampshire County Council could be forced to ditch parts of the long-awaited scheme to rejuvenate Totton.

This follows the government's refusal earlier this year to give the authority a grant to fund the project.

The county council abandoned its attempt to seek a lump sum from Whitehall after it was advised that the application was unlikely to succeed.

Now it has devised a smaller scheme that could be financed by the Local Transport Plan.

It is likely to be implemented in four phases, beginning with a £3m plan to improve Water Lane and build a new link road from Salisbury Road to a mini roundabout at the junction of Ringwood Road and Maynard Road.

A county council spokesman said the authority aimed to do the greatest good by concentrating on proposed improvements to Totton's "central commercial core".

However, she stressed that plans to enhance sites south of the railway line had not been abandoned. Robin Harrison, chairman of the town council's planning and transport advisory committee, said: "The best we can hope for is that the rest of the work will be implemented over the years. Experience at Hythe has shown that steady improvements can be beneficial, so I'm disappointed but not despondent."

Other members have reacted angrily to the possibility that £10m could be deleted from the original scheme. Former town council chairman Dave Russell said Totton was in danger of losing out "yet again".