Winchester'S £100m Broadway-Friarsgate development will not kill off the city's High Street shopping area, council chiefs have pledged.

Civic leaders say the 41 new stores that will be built as part of the scheme will boost the retail economy. Concerns have been raised by some city councillors that the lure of new units in Broadway-Friarsgate would tempt shops away from the High Street.

Council leader Sheila Campbell, speaking at a meeting of the authority's ruling Cabinet, told colleagues she didn't think current retailers would necessarily move.

She said she hoped the new shops would bring in other retailers who have so far shunned Winchester because of the lack of suitable premises to lease.

Councillor Fred Allgood, chairman of the council's principal scrutiny committee, complained that the extra 15 per cent retailers would be asked to pay in rent for the new units might also put off potential leaseholders.

But Councillor Richard Knasel, the city's head of economy and transport, said that if the new development attracted more shoppers to Winchester, retailers wouldn't mind paying the extra sum provided they were making money.

The meeting also heard that the city council was planning a major publicity campaign next April to bring shoppers back to the city, many of whom have been tempted away to Southampton's WestQuay and Basingstoke's Festival Place.

However the emphasis would not be on the quantity of shops in the city, but the quality.