SOUTHAMPTON business leaders have delivered a stinging rebuke to bosses behind development plans for the former Vosper Thornycroft site.

The Chamber of Commerce has "fundamental concerns" about the scheme but fears those in charge have already made up their minds.

It also went on the offensive over plans for up to 1,500 homes there, saying marine industry should come first.

Plans for the prestigious development of VT's 36-acre, £15m site on the Itchen, now renamed Woolston Riverside, are the brainchild of the South East England Development Agency and top architects the Richard Rogers Partnership, who built the Millennium Dome.

But the chamber says their master plan leaves business high and dry and warns of a waste of the "precious" waterfront site with a series of tower blocks.

"The development of a publicly accessible waterfront lifestyle is a highly valuable city asset," reads the report. "We do not consider waterfront access in terms of strolling past residential towers to be an adequate exploitation of this precious opportunity."

Because "too much of the site is given over to housing", it's in danger of becoming a wasted opportunity for business.

The chamber said: "We are not able to uncover how (if at all) the master plan for Woolston links to a strategy for maritime industry across the south coast.

"We feel that the master plan cannot be adopted in this form," it adds.

But chamber bosses fear it's too late to make changes because they suspect SEEDA and the council have already finalised their plans.

"A SEEDA spokesman defended the scheme and said the chamber's views were among hundreds received as part of wide-ranging public consultation. All of these comments are now being reviewed and it would therefore be premature to comment on individual views at this time," she said.