A GROUP of Winchester residents has issued a legal challenge to the city council over its plans for the redundant River Park Leisure Centre.

The newly-formed ‘Friends of River Park’ has told the council it will seek a judicial review of the council’s plans to work with Southampton University over an expansion of its School of Art campus on Gordon Avenue.

Local people are unhappy about the level of public consultation before the decision to lease the site to the university was announced in the autumn.

The leisure centre was opened in the 1970s but closed in the spring with the opening of the new £38m centre at Bar End.

The campaigners, in a statement to the Chronicle, said: “There was no notice and no opportunity for public debate about the future uses of this publicly owned space.

“Rapid action by a group to be known as Friends of River Park has resulted in the issuing of formal notice to the Council of their intention to apply for a Judicial Review.

“This will be the fifth Judicial Review of Council decisions since February 2015. It will be the fourth that relates to sites under its control and for development it is promoting and, to date, all the challenges to the council’s actions have been successful. It is unprecedented that the Council should continue to act unlawfully over its dealings with Winchester’s land assets and people will no doubt be wondering about the unnecessary expenditure of precious taxpayers’ money and resources.”

Previous judicial reviews have included Cllr Kim Gottlieb’s challenge over Silver Hill and more recently the action by Domum Road residents over the new multi-storey car park at Bar End.

The Friends of River Park statement draws attention to the historic roots of the leisure centre which stem from the opening of a public park in the early 20th century.

It added: “The emphasis of Friends of River Park’s current efforts is to preserve the land for public use. What that use might be will crystallise with full and proper public consultation. The legal action aims to quash the Cabinet decision to dispose of the land in such a way that the Council no longer holds it on trust for the public: losing public ownership is frankly wrong. The whole of the Recreation Ground was designated a public park for use by the community for recreational and scientific purposes, under a covenant which was put in place when the land was sold to ‘the Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of Winchester’ in 1902. However, as soon as it is handed over to a private, commercial entity it loses a major part of its protection as public land, under statutory provisions.

“The issue of ‘what next?’ should be canvassed with Winchester’s residents once we know that the legal action has been successful in quashing the decision. We will demand that everyone should be able contribute to a transparent, constructive debate about the exciting opportunities offered by the River Park site.”

In a statement, the council said: “No application for judicial review has been made at this time. The council has received a pre-application letter. The purpose of this letter is to identify the matters in dispute and whether court proceedings can be avoided. The council will always seek to constructively engage with this process, especially where this can avoid formal action being taken.”