THE ROW over the future of Twickenham Riverside rolled on this week as a team of residents' groups clubbed together to fund a referendum to find out what people think of the controversial plans.

Ballot papers were delivered by the independent Electoral Reform Services to 4,500 homes from Twickenham Green to Marble Hill.

The cost – which is expected to be £5,000 – has been underwritten by campaigners, made up of the Friends of Twickenham Riverside, Referendum on Riverside, Richmond United Group, Save Our Riverside and Twickenham Riverside Terrace Group.

The paper asks "should public property on Twickenham Riverside be sold to a property developer," referring to Richmond Council's plans to sell the former swimming pool site to developer Countryside, who will build luxury housing and a river centre.

"This will be the first chance people will have to give a straight answer," said campaigner Scott Naylor. "The question is straight forward and to the point."

But Richmond Council leader Serge Lourie called the ballot "grossly misleading" and said he had complained to the company carrying it out.

"This so called referendum would have disgraced even Charles De Gaulle, who made asking biased questions an art form. For a referendum to be persuasive, it needs to be balanced and give all the facts fairly.

"This referendum is a disgrace and will not have any impact on the council's decision making as the result will not be worth the paper it is written on."

But his opponents insisted their ballot was fair. "This wasn't a quick process – we spent days going over the material to be sent out and deciding the wording of the question. We were given guidance by Electoral Reform Services and they approved it before agreeing to conduct the referendum."

Papers were delivered on Monday. The closing date for responses is June 24 – the result will be known 24 hours later.