Council's out of this world plans for the King Alfred

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 9th Mar 2003

The three shortlisted proposals for the King Alfred have been announced by the council.

Liberal Democrat councillors have expressed concern that each of the designs will be dramatically out of keeping with the area and focus not on sporting facilities but the design of the flats that the council insist are needed to pay for the development.

Liberal Democrats want to see the King Alfred redeveloped as part of a community trust, giving the option of borrowing the capital funds needed instead of using large numbers of flats to pay for the work.

Cllr Mark Barnard said:

"The council has come up with plans which concentrate on housing not leisure facilities - this is wrong."