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Bordon Eco Town - any info? - Stu (15th Apr 2012 - 07:41:02) Hi, We are looking to move to the area but can't seem to find any recent information regarding the Bordon Eco Town plans. There seems to be lots of old information on the web so just wondered if anyone can help with what the current situation is and do you think it will go ahead? Many Thanks

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - James (16th Apr 2012 - 09:49:59) As far as the EHDC is concerned, the 'eco' town is going ahead. They continue to spend huge sums of our money on planning this dormitory town whilst avoiding holding the promised referendum, no doubt because they know what the verdict will be. Sadly, there seems to be a high level of complacency in the Liphook area about this issue. I suspect that ultimately it will be forced through despite public opposition in Bordon and Whitehill. District councillors tend to be supportive of the project, presumably because it enables the EHDC to meet its new housing quota demanded by central government without affecting their wards in luckier towns such as Petersfield and Alton. So no help is to be had from them. For up-to-date information don't bother asking the EHDC. I can only suggest that you contact BAAG (Bordon Area Action Group) via their website and keep an eye on the regular letters from Peter Parkinson in the Liphook Herald. Liphook is a fine place to live and I would not wish to discourage you. However, this Sword of Damocles hangs over the area and may yet bring a blight that will affect our quality of life and perhaps even property values. Only then will people take notice.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - Lisa (17th Apr 2012 - 09:40:04) James, I am very interested in the reasons why an eco town may negatively affect Liphook. I don't think we've had the implications fully explained to us - could you do so?

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - tony (17th Apr 2012 - 09:52:50) If thousands more people moving into Bordon and using Liphook to access the A3 tunnel, along with the breakdown of local community cohesion this level of politically engineered migration always brings doesn't equate to a negative impact, then I don't know what does. Still, it's just a start, apparently the government wants 3 million new homes in the southeast by 2020! This in a country with one of the lowest birthrates in the western world. Strange. I suspect there's some powerful people making money off this somewhere along the line.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - Huh? (17th Apr 2012 - 11:33:20) Why would they come through Liphook to access the A3? Join it at Greatham (straight down the A325 from Bordon) and you're free and clear up the A3 without touching Liphook. Or go up the A325 and join it via the A31. According to Google Maps that is the shorter route from the centre of Bordon to Guildford. Even if people do use the Headley Road in Liphook to get to the A3 down Tower Road and up London Road it is not exactly blocking the centre of the village as it doesn't touch it!

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - Dawn Hoskins (17th Apr 2012 - 12:59:23) Dear all. Although I am a Parish Councillor – I am not on the planning committee. This is because I despair at the lack of local control and the ability for those in control to manipulate or take advantage of the system. I understand that central government require the country to be populated in certain areas to a higher density that is currently available, however the system is so open to abuse that decisions are made that are often so perverse that the only conclusion I can come to is that it must be lining the pockets of those in ‘decision making’ positions. When the initial proposals for an ‘Eco Town’ were put forward I welcomed the idea. I am essentially a ‘greenie’ and the idea of sustainable transport to Petersfield, Farnham, Portsmouth and Guildford (as well as the surrounding villages) would be a fantastic move forward. Would encourage a generation of youngsters to embrace public transport and free up a generation of Mums and Dads who are currently used as taxi drivers (for lack of rural transport links). It would also enable non-drivers to access any new facilities that the Eco Town could offer – thus drawing in footfall and creating wealth for the area. In my mind I thought they had grand plans for recycling water and harnessing the sun & wind and building carbon neutral homes. Whilst embracing the open green spaces and beautiful woodlands that the MOD have had the benefit of for all these years. However, the reality is very very far from the ‘ECO Town’ that most people would envisage when they hear this term. As the MOD land has not been accessible before many people do not realise that much of it is Specially Protected due precious species of nature and wildlife that are present in these areas. However, the green fields are to be built on and not saved, they are even going to build on the existing playing fields and recreational facilities in Bordon and then make the local people who already use those travel twice the distance to a more remote site. This is the plan of a madman. WORST OF ALL – there is no transport link other than by road. Can you imagine triple the amount of cars on the ‘Birdworld Road’ or the route to Liphook? The only train line is from Liphook which is now a 'down graded' station with only part-time staff – only one route in though Passfield, past Conford, join the already horrendous morning queue at the double roundabouts in Liphook – to a station with inadequate parking provision and inadequate services. The busses already run late and erratically to Farnham because of the traffic congestion - that is why people don’t use the existing service [too expensive and gets you there late] – how can that get any better if the bus you are in is stuck in the same queue as everyone else? This overwhelming lack of transport policy will create such a massive carbon footprint that it negates the entire prospect of environmental friendliness. Do not dress this up as an Eco Town when it cannot possibly be so. It will be a massively over developed area of natural beauty, with over 5½ thousand high rise houses and flats with minimal or no gardens, built in maximum density ‘ little boxes’ to minimal standards which manage to not use any wind power, solar power, grey water or any other environmental and ecological regenerators. It will make millionaires of the developers and those receiving bungs will be laughing all the way to their next holiday home. We are not stupid. Builders do not build houses for the love of it. They do it to make a profit as big as possible. If there is going to be a massive over development of a site, then consult the local people PROPERLY and involve the local councils PROPERLY. These are decisions that will change the lives of thousands of people and they should not be decided by those with vested interests who live a million miles away and don’t care if my road becomes a log jam every morning! That is why I am not on Planning. My voice is lost and these devastating decisions will not be made by anyone who will be affected by them.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - bdavies (17th Apr 2012 - 16:50:29) When Ferris Cowper and EHDC initially touted this massive extension to Bordon, the so-called self-containment concept of local employment would apparently prevent the need for people living there to look for work elsewhere. It was pointed out to the people at EHDC who had their heads firmly hidden in the clouds that this cannot be guaranteed even though the concept was used by them as an excuse to promote the scheme. An increase in traffic in Liphook or anywhere else and the carbon emmissions that result is unacceptable for a town to be an eco town.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - Dawn Hoskins (18th Apr 2012 - 09:43:17) Here is a map of the area to be built on. You can see how far it is from it's adjoining villages.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - James (18th Apr 2012 - 10:07:12) Lisa has asked for an explanation of the implications but Dawn Hoskins has given a comprehensive answer to which I would only add the following In Liphook we concern ourselves with local plans for a hundred houses here and two hundred there. I contend that 5000 houses at a distance of a few miles can affect us equally. 5000 houses means perhaps 15000 people and 5000+ cars. It also means 5000+ jobs are required. Although many people moving to the ‘eco’ town would keep their existing jobs and add to the commuter traffic, the trend would be for greater competition for jobs nearer to home. This makes the job situation, especially for our young people, even more difficult. The EHDC made claims of new jobs being created in or attracted to Bordon but have provided no evidence to support this. Indeed, Viking Park (the open area behind the Jet petrol station) was intended to be used for employment but it seems it will now be used for more housing. (Does this sound familiar?). I mentioned the debate in the letters page of the Herald but it is a very one-sided debate. Peter Parkinson (of BAAG) and others argue their case strongly and one would think that the EHDC or individual councillors would be anxious to defend their plans. But what do we get? Silence! And silence seems to be the Council’s policy. Jack Warshaw of the Herald reports that he submitted a list of questions to the Council, one of which received a meaningless answer and the rest were ignored. As Dawn Hoskins has said, our planning system is very unsatisfactory.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - Stu (18th Apr 2012 - 12:56:14) Many Thanks for all the interesting replies. Does anyone know where the council will find residents to fill the proposed 5000 houses? Are the 2000 affordable homes within the scheme to be privately owned or housing association rented?

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - liz (18th Apr 2012 - 13:15:43) A couple of questions: How may people will move out of Bordon when the army go? I suppose the idea of building/re-opening the rail line to Bentley was just 'pie in the sky'? I'm confused by the whole so called 'Eco-town' idea if is just going to put extreme pressure on already scarce local resources and not be in any way self -sustaining. I was in favour in principal but from Dawn's comments it appears to be just a ploy. Has anyone thought of contacting Prince Charles (no I'm not joking!!). I would have thought he would be upset to learn of an 'Eco town' with no significant green credentials.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - Dawn (18th Apr 2012 - 13:32:32) Liz, Even if thy did re-open the old Bentley line, which they have said is very unlikely due to cost and houses now being sited on the clearway etc, the main locations we go to the shops, cinema, swimming, skating, theatre, general day out or evening out etc are either Guidford or Portsmouth. These are also two main areas of employment, along with city workers of course. The Bentley line does not stop at any of these, so Liphook Station would be the only alternative to anyone not wanted to drive all the way. The Bentley line would only be good for Alton, for which there is already a direct bus. Although the bus is relatively expensive and often late due to traffic congestion, a train would be more expensive and run only once per hour. So, all a bit useless really! At the last meeting I attended it was made clear that although everyone agreed that the infrastructure should go in first, such as the shops, entertainment and sporting venues, rail routes, bus lanes, cycle paths etc etc, in reality that couldn’t happen as they had to build all the houses first, reach a ‘critical mass’ and only then (once the thousands already lived there) would they provide facilities. Why dress this up into something it is not. Just call it a mass overdevelopment with no infrastructure and be done with it!

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - bdavies (18th Apr 2012 - 16:10:22) Dawn, I do not think that the largest black circled area of MOD land is included in this eco-town scheme (that which borders Conford). Only the two areas close to Bordon are involved - correct?

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - Dawn (18th Apr 2012 - 18:16:01) Hi, I thought it was the other black circle called Hogmoor that wasn't going to be built on, but the others were? Perhaps we need some clarification on that as that would mean even higher density if it is to be squashed into a smaller area. As I have tried to keep away from the persons running this project for fear of accidently garrotting them, I do not know who to approach. However, the main problems remain. Building an isolated dormatory town with no rail network of it's own will not be an enviromental or ecological success. It will be a big housing estate of little houses that will make a few people very rich - that is all.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - bdavies (19th Apr 2012 - 09:54:30) My understanding was that land covered by the larger black circle (or at least most of it) is owned by the NT and on lease to the MOD. Anyone wanting to build anything on that will face immovable opposition from all quarters.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - liz (19th Apr 2012 - 10:56:26) I have been reading that according to government guidelines an Eco town should: (this is copied from a 'Shelter' document) -have a zero carbon impact as a whole -contain employment opportunities and a full range of amenities, such as schools, health clinics and public transport, to ensure that it is as self-contained as practicable If the proposed Bordon Eco town does not meet these criteria at first construction then surely it is not an Eco town, just a development opportunity. Just building houses with the expectation that the full criteria will be met eventually is just cynical nonsense in my view.

Re: Bordon Eco Town - any info? - M (24th Apr 2012 - 05:51:26) Hi all I have heard from inside sources that the Bordon Eco town is a no goer, and that the army still have contracts in Bordon until 2016 at the moment, also on top of that the proposed new site the army from Bordon and Arborfield are moving to still has not had a single brick laid to house the families or the workshops for the equipment. The MOD has no money and can not afford to fund a new build costing Billions. so The new proposed setup is Bordon camp is staying and Arborfield is moving into Bordon camp as well. now thats a BIG SPANNER in the Eco town plans and they keep wasting money on the idea

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