River resident and DTIZ lead petitioner, Alan Shirley, along with other campaigners will have the chance to ask questions at a scrutiny meeting on June 23.

Mr Shirley set up a petition in December which gained more than 2,000 signatures, signed by the MP, Charlie Elphicke, Labour's Clair Hawkins, Lib Dem's Sarah Smith and UKIP's David Little.

The concept of the petition was to force the council to be transparent in answering resident's concerns in a public meeting.

At an extraordinary meeting last night, Mr Shirley made a 10 minute speech about the progress, insisting that the council be transparent and open to residents.

Mr Shirley said: "The district wants to work with you in support of this town.

"The infrastructure of this town is in a shameful situation, what remains in this town is disappointment and anger."

Cllr Kevin Mills said: "I am more than happy to take it in now, I don't believe we should have secrets."

Each person asking a question at the scrutiny meeting will be allocated three minutes to do so.

Leader of the council, Paul Watkins added: "We have nothing to hide.

"You will get to understand the complexity of the scheme, of the way the system that will take this project forward.

"In front of you, you will have the people who are putting on the scheme who will come along and answer your questions."

Read the full report in next week's Mercury, out on May 22.