A STRUGGLING Hampshire shopping centre could be set for demolition as the firm behind a £165m development eyes up another piece of city real estate.

The Brooks Centre, in Winchester, will be bulldozed and replaced with new streets if the developer of the Silver Hill scheme takes over from administrators, a senior manager revealed.

Development director Martin Perry also said work on the major project for shops and homes will start in April if civic chiefs survive a High Court battle next week.

Henderson would flatten The Brooks Centre, set to be sold after its owners collapsed last month, to make way for shopping streets two or three years after Silver Hill is completed.

Mr Perry warned that other bidders could bring “ultra-cheap” traders to the centre and dent the “quality” of Silver Hill.

“My real worry is that somebody will buy The Brooks to take it down-market,” he told the Daily Echo.

“It will affect the retailers that you can get into the scheme.

“The Brooks, by its very design, is fundamentally flawed. You can’t refurbish or manipulate that.

“Winchester should be a town of streets and squares and wandering around. It’s not a town of covered shopping centres.”

Diggers will move onto the site this April if Winchester City Council wins a judicial review of its decision to allow controversial changes to the scheme, with the first ten flats set to be on the market in January 2016.

The remaining blocks of shops, homes and parking will be built throughout the next two years, with new homes going up for sale as each section is finished, with all but a few shops opening in April 2017.

The landmark regeneration is set to be completed in Easter 2018 with the opening of the final retail block in Silver Hill itself.