A Conservative councillor has said she is "flabbergasted" that she was "kept in the dark" about the development of a site in Stanmore.

Anmer Lodge in Coverdale Close the adjacent car park and Stanmore Library, Stanmore Hill, are currently being marketed by the council. Three companies have placed bids on the site, and some believe that one of them is Tesco, which bought the library in 2007.

But in a meeting at Stanmore Library last night, Councillor Marilyn Ashton, (Conservative, Stanmore Park), slammed the Labour group for refusing to reveal who the bidders were. She also called on the council to adopt a planning brief.

She said: “The council have received three proposals from potential developers – but we are being kept in the dark about who these bidders might be. We think option B could be Tesco because they own the site.”

She explained that a consultation was held “at the eleventh hour” in December in Bernays Hall, but that this was poorly advertised and revealed no further information about who the bidders were.

Cllr Ashton said that when she tried to find out who the bidders were, the council’s explained that their legal team had “advised them to not say anything.” She also put in a freedom of information request four weeks ago, but was told there had been a “systems deletion” and that some emails about the development were lost.

She said: “I was astonished. I received a spreadsheet of meetings they’d had with the officers, which looked like something that had been contrived for my benefit. How are we supposed to know how they came to the conclusion about the three bidders?

The plans of all three options are totally unacceptable – we can only stop this by people power. It seems there are too many decisions in smoke field rooms.”

She asked people to “make noise” by lobbying the Labour administration, and to sign a petition, which will be to the council Cabinet meeting on March 5.

John Williams, chairman of the Stanmore Society, also expressed his concerns. “It’s a matter of grave importance. We should know who the bidders are – why are we being kept in the dark?”

The Harrow Times is awaiting comment from Harrow Council.