HISTORIC Winchester is set for a 21st century revamp costing up to £20 million.

A blueprint for the major redevelopment of a key area in the heart of the city centre is due to be unveiled by planning chiefs this summer.

The scheme, which is expected to cost between £10 to £20 million, will completely transform the Broadway-Friarsgate area during the first years of the next century.

City council bosses are working on the final stages of a draft planning brief, which they are proposing to launch for public consultation by July.

Although details of the brief have not yet been released, it is expected to be based on the findings of a study commissioned by the council in 1997.

The study envisaged the development of a new bus station, a 5,500 square metre store, 1,500 square metres of shops, up to 30 residential flats, a new health centre, restaurants, cafes and public spaces.

City planners are particularly anxious to redevelop the current bus station, which opened in the 1930s and has been under-used since the opening of the new one at Bar End.

Meanwhile Stagecoach, which owns the bus station, is in the process of preparing its own plans for development in the area.

The draft brief will also reflect the policies of the Winchester movement and access joint members' panel on city centre car parking, traffic and bus routes. But options to improve access for buses and changes to the traffic circulation system will be examined in great detail before any decisions are taken.

Chairman of the planning committee, Rodney Sabine, stressed that the draft planning brief would be the subject of an extensive public consultation exercise. "This is an important and complex site and it is also technically difficult because it has a large number of planning constraints, so we must get it right," he added.

"Whatever we do in this area must also benefit the remaining shopping facilities in the city." Winchester Residents' Association chairman Alan Weeks said the redevelopment of such an important part of the city must be of the highest quality of architectural design."

The Broadway-Friarsgate area is the core of Roman, Saxon and medieval Winchester.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.