BRAINTREE District Council has denied any wrongdoing by trying to keep plans for a huge retail complex a secret.
The authority only divulged details on three-year discussions for a 100,000 sq ft shopping centre in the town after ordered to do so by the information commissioner.
The talks with James Development were for a seven-story complex where Morrisons and the George Yard multi-storey car park in Rayne Road stand.
Graham Butland, leader of Braintree District Council, said: "These were informal discussions with the developer, which for whatever reason decided not to go ahead.
"Developers come to us all the time with ideas and we were keen to improve the development of the town centre, so this would have fallen into that strategy. I've no idea whether another developer is looking at Braintree, but we will talk to anyone who wants to invest here."
But these plans were only revealed by a Rayne Road resident, who does not wish to be named, who submitted an freedom of information (FOI) request to the authority. It initially refused to comply on the grounds that it was commercially sensitive.
But it was forced to by the information commissioner, who said that was not the case.
Cllr Butland continued: "We work within the law. We were told to disclose the information, so we did. If someone believes we have done anything wrong they should inform the chief executive or the police."
The FOI request revealed discussions between James Development, which owns the Morrisons building, and the council started in 2009.
Plans for a shopping centre three times reached an advanced stage and would have seen a seven-story mezzanine site with over 900 parking spaces.
Detailed drawings and floor plans also identified a new row of shops along the perimeter of the proposed site that would have run along the conservation area of Rayne Road and Pierefitte Way.
One idea tabled in a series of e-mails in 2010 was the idea that the council would buy the site from James Development, then lease it back in a similar arrangement the authority has with the Morrisons multi-storey car park.
But after correspondence throughout the three-year period James Development dropped the idea around March 2012.
A statement from Braintree District Council said: "There are currently no plans in place to redevelop the site, the council is not currently in correspondence with the owners of the Morrisons site, and no formal agreement has been made with either the owners, or Morrisons.
"In 2009, the council commissioned a report that examined the scope for Braintree town centre to accommodate new retail development.
"However, following discussions, James Development has not come forward with any concrete plans, and there has been no correspondence with the company since 2012."
