The chairman of a river users' pressure group has accused council chiefs of turning a public consultation exercise on the future of Bath's waterways into a "frustrating and time-wasting farce".

In a furious three-page article in a specialist magazine, Inland Waterways Association representative John Webb accuses Bath and North East Somerset Council of presiding over a "major lost opportunity" for regenerating the River Avon.

Mr Webb is chairman of the organisation's Avon and Wiltshire branch and in 2002 joined the council's River Corridor Study Group to help shape a new planning blueprint for the river banks stretching alongside the derelict swathe of brown field land known as the Western Riverside.

The area is earmarked for a 2,200-home scheme by developer Crest Nicholson, although construction for the £1bn project has been held up by the recession, which is limiting the availability of mortgages to potential buyers.

In his article, Mr Webb states that meetings were held with senior officials from British Waterways, the Environment Agency and Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, along with inspection cruises, and surveys of boaters.

But he writes that in 2005, things began to deteriorate.

"The whole thing ground to a halt with us being fobbed off and kept in the dark as to what if anything was happening," he said.

In 2006, the group were told the study had been abandoned and the document was finally published last March.

Mr Webb said there was no mention of the group's idea of water taxis, few moorings for boats and fears about "unattractive" steel sheeting on the riverside.

He concludes: "As an exercise in public consultation, this whole business has developed into a frustrating and time-wasting farce. Honeyed words as a substitute for a detailed statement as to what is expected simply do not work."

He said Bristol City Council had in contrast provided a wonderful example of how to carry out a consultation exercise with work on its riverside areas.

Mr Webb, who lives at Combe Down, said the council's public realm strategy, which also talks of opening up more areas of Bath's river network, paid only "lip service" to such improvements.

He said: "We have missed a golden opportunity. I just hope lessons have been learned."

Council cabinet member for development and major projects Cllr Terry Gazzard said the authority was dedicated to making more of the city's waterways.

"Bath and North East Somerset Council's draft Public Realm and Movement Strategy provides a highly detailed and imaginative perspective on how the riverspace of Bath city centre could help to reinvigorate the role of the river and adjoining buildings and spaces in the city's public life." he said.

The council has already received more than 100 formal responses during the public consultation, which remains open until February 20.

"Many of these relate to how the council proposes the river should play a prominent role in creating a canvas for public life in Bath.

"The council has also commissioned a flood risk management strategy that will play a key role in providing options as to how brown field river sites in the city can be developed."