Fareham Borough Council's ruling executive took the controversial decision behind closed doors late last year to look more closely at land around Portchester precinct as a replacement for the current community centre.

The details of the executive's meeting were revealed last night at a Community Action Team meeting for the Portchester area.

The Portchester Community Centre at Westlands Grove, and the location of last night's meeting, has been earmarked for demolition as it would need £750,000 for repairs to bring it in line with health and safety regulations.

About 100 residents packed into the 50-year-old centre to hear what is happening to plans for its replacement.

Martyn George, the council's director of customer services, explained how the council could need to raise up to £2.64million to build the replacement centre.

He said the land at the precinct was being considered in tandem with a small retail development as this gave the council a good chance to raise the money it needed.

And explaining why the decision was taken behind closed doors, he said: 'It was a confidential report because it included lots of financial detail, including valuations of our assets at specific moments in time and we wouldn't want that going out into the market place.'

But he stressed that no final decision has been made on where the new centre will go.

And he added: 'There have also been rumours going around that the council has given permission for a superstore at the precinct - I would like to quash those rumours.'

There will now be 12-15 months of further public consultation over the location of the new centre.

But the mood of the audience was hostile to plans for building at the precinct.

One resident won applause when he said that no-one in the room supported a centre there.

Others queried what would happen to vehicles displaced by building on the car park.

Ken Howkins, of the Portchester Society, criticised the council for the way it has gone about picking the location of the new centre.

He said: 'I would like to see the council putting the horse before the cart for once and carrying out a survey asking the people of Portchester where they would like their community centre to be, and that would show a much more democratic approach to the process than it is showing now.'

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