The Bordon Area Action Group (BAAG) is a new organisation of residents from Bordon and the surrounding villages.  BAAG opposes the East Hampshire District Councils (EHDC’s) proposals for 5,500 new houses at Bordon, which would make it almost the population of Farnham.  We fear the negative environmental effects of their plans, whether or not an eco-town is named.  In particular, we foresee irreversible damage that this level of development would bring to the natural environment, especially to the important designated habitats that surround Bordon.   

We recognise the need to redevelop the existing built MoD areas of Bordon, if the MoD move out, but 5,500 new homes is far more than the MoD brownfield sites and local area can support.    

BAAG supports sensible redevelopment of the former MoD built areas for up to 2,000 homes, safeguarding our historic built and natural environments and resisting any development on existing Greenfield land.  All open space should remain as such.  We support zero carbon building standards for new development and, where possible across the whole town.  We want a more mixed community, not a ghetto of social housing, or a general dumping ground for EHDC problems.  

BAAG recognise that Bordon's lack of a good town centre is the legacy of past bad planning and under-resourcing.  We support the restoration of a true High Street for the existing town, in an accessible location.  This and other measures to reduce car use, stop more road building and attract more local jobs are encouraged.  BAAG are particularly concerned about the noise, pollution and congestion caused by increased traffic. 

BAAG will be working to ensure that the EHDC’s massive expansion proposals are dropped in favour of a realistic scheme that meets the true aspirations of those that will have to live with its legacy. 

Anyone interested in joining our campaign to ensure that Bordon is re-developed in a sensible and sustainable way and which addresses local concerns, should act now.  Come to our public forum at 7.30pm on Friday 17^th April 2009 at the Forest Community Centre, Bordon.  Visit the BAAG web page www.baaga.co.uk and join us. 

Contact:        Liz Simes – lizsimes30@hotmail.com  Tel: 07976 845620

                        Steve Parsons – stephenparsons8591@hotmail.co.uk

Future unclear for eco-towns as financial troubles hit

Building 20 March 2009

More than half of the 11 proposals for eco-towns that the government is considering may be financially unviable, an official report has revealed.

5 April

WHITEHILL-BORDON IS A “NEW TOWN” EXPERIMENT  -COUNCIL

BAAG members attended a number of the Councl’s “stakeholder workshops” run by consultants EDAW during the past week, at Liphook, Kingsley, Bordon and Hollywater.  A “public” version was staged on Saturday 4 April.

Vested interests

Most of these invited “Stakeholders” seemed to be politicians, Council officers, representatives of official bodies, consultants and business interests.  Dark suits predominated.  After a sugary sales pitch, replete with images of children playing in “green streets” and the like, much of the audience left.  “Breakout groups” were then expected to provide the consultants with details of how the Masterplan should be implemented.  Each group was heavily loaded with vested interests.  One group were faced with examples of “eco” building materials that might feature in the six-to-eight story blocks of flats that would carve a slice off Hogmoor Inclosure and overlook the tidied up remainder of this semi-wild space. 

The consultants’ hymn sheet was clearly written so as to stamp on any attempt to discuss first principles, such as the fact that local residents voted for up to 2,000 new homes on brownfield land only, not the mega-plan for 5,500 that the promoters now treat as a foregone conclusion.  For example, EDAW Director Alison Peters, asked why they were working on 5,500 homes, dismissed it as “…only doing what we are told.”

Set up

In short, the sessions were set up to bury objections to the Council’s plan.  They took photographs of each group for use in the next PR offensive.  So confident were they that the mask began to slip as they increasingly called Bordon a “New Town.”

But the main revelation of the events is that, by their own admission, that the New Town is a giant experiment.  That was the word from Councillor Dowdle when asked a direct question last Wednesday.

Working in a bubble

EDAW were unprepared with figures on how much greenfield land would be developed, or the expected traffic generation, or where it would go, or whether new roads would be needed, or what the impact on the area would be, or what facilities Bordon currently lacks, or how future residents might be “persuaded” not to have cars at all.  Instead they promised to “fight for” a rapid transit system- meaning trains or trams, with no evidence of how either could be achieved.  Aspects of the presentation were at best devious, at times, dangerous spin verging on dishonest.  One consultant was overheard to whisper that a rail link would never happen.  A representative of the Petersfield Civic Society said that they were “working in a bubble.”

Residents of surrounding places including Wrecclesham, Lindford, Standford, Passfield, Oakhanger and Liphook should be very worried about the traffic impact of Whitehill-Bordon x 2.  Another contradiction is the conflict between improving the A325 to provide a “fast bus link” and reducing its capacity along a regenerated High Street, lined with high rise flats.  It was also stated that military personnel remaining in Bordon would commute to Aldershot.  Bordon people who already commute to the Blackwater Valley will continue, worsening the existing problem.

BAAG’s position

BAAG’s formal submissions to the Government, sent this week, state that Whitehill-Bordon fails all the fundamental requirements for an eco-town.  The full texts can be seen at www.baaga.co.uk.  BAAG’s website also advises on how everyone can compose and send their own submission, which must be sent before 30 April. Links to the Department of Communities and Local Government website are also provided.   

BAAG’s Public Meeting at the Forest Centre in Bordon on the 17^th April at 7.30 will focus on exposing what the Council’s plan really means, stimulating genuine popular response and demanding honest answers from the promoters.

6 April at 6.30pm

BBC TV South Today

BBC Video broadcast

BAAG representatives Steve Parsons and Jack Warshaw were interviewed by reporter Joe Campbell of BBC TV.  The location, Hogmoor Inclosure, provided an opportunity to condemn the Council's broken promise not to build on it.  In fact, both their Masterplan options show swathes of the Inclosure as housing land.  We also pointed out, that massive development will occur long before the first new shop or other "benefit" can be provided- perhaps 20 years down the line.

Steve Parsons of BAAG explains that parts of Hogmoor Inclosure and other greenfield sites will disappear if the Council's plan for massive high density housing goes ahead. 

Breaking news

The Telegraph, 6 April

One opinion released today by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England found that the policy could be unlawful because the towns would be able to circumvent normal planning processes.

John Hobson QC, the campaign's honorary standing counsel, said the Government could find itself open to legal challenges by allowing developers to avoid well-established local development plans.

Pushing ahead with the plans would risk "distorting the plan making process", he said.

The news comes after another QC, John Steel said the plans were "unfair, illogical and unreasonable".

Kate Gordon, the campaign's Senior Planner said: "Communities rely on a robust planning system to guide development to where it is needed most while protecting the countryside.

"CPRE has been urging the Government not to pursue its eco-town policy in its current form. This legal opinion adds to existing doubts over the lawfulness of the Government's approach."