As the meeting secretary of BAAG – the Bordon Area Action Group – I am writing to correct the impression that everything in Bordon is lovely (11 September, page 46)

We are campaigning to stop over-development in Whitehill Bordon. The local authority has made great play of “wide public support” but has produced no evidence to support the claim. Their carrot of unspecified “better facilities” has been outweighed by the price of doubling the size of the town to get them. Why we need twice the population of other nearby towns to achieve the facilities they enjoy, has never been explained.

Bordon has a poor road system and little prospect of improvements owing to the proximity of EU-protected wildlife sites. Traffic is a problem now, which makes it impossible to believe that doubling the population will reduce it. The idea of a railway terminus is unlikely be financially viable to serve a population of this size, while water supplies are currently classified as “no water available”.

So green economy measures are not so much a worthy ambition, as a dire necessity for the idea to work at all.

Bordon bears little resemblance to the eco-town planning policy statement. It is not separate and distinct from existing settlements, it is not close to a higher order centre and is served by a poor transport system. Most local people are not supporting the plan. All in all, this is the most unlikely site and the location most at risk from attrition to wildlife sites, of which it has more than any other shortlisted location.

Peter Parkinson

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