Planning

Now the Gorse Fox would like to just check that he has this straight.

The Government asserts that we need a new town in the South (not an unreasonable assertion given the population growth) and has listed 3 possible sites:

1. Bordon
2. Ford
3. Micheldever

One of these will be selected as a new Eco-town. (Have you noticed that everything has to be prefixed with "Eco" nowadays - the Gorse Fox is concerned that we will exhaust the earth's resources of Es, Cs and Os as we seem to be consuming them at an alarming rate).

So let us examine the options:

1. Bordon: an old garrison town between the A3 and A31, near to Winchester, Farnham, Basingstoke, Farnborough, Alton. Good transport links, nearby railway, plenty of nearby employment. The Garrison is about to move out and in doing so damage the local economy and make vast areas of "brownfield" sites available. A new development would be able to re-use the site and invigorate the economy.
   
2. Ford: a disused airfield bounded by HMP Ford "Open Prison", no North-south routes, and the only east-west route is the single carriageway section of the A27. East-west railway line. No local opportunities for employment. Any inhabitant would have to travel for work... on infrastructure that does not exist.
   
3. Micheldever: old village between the M3 and A303 on the main railway line through Hampshire. Close to Winchester, Andover and Basingstoke. Plenty of opportunity for employment, easy transport links.
   

So given that a new town must be built, which of these options has been ruled out? Well, Micheldever of course. Of the remaining 2, Ford is the most likely. Now Gorse Fox doesn't have an issue with this as such - people are entitled to have places to live. His complaint is the hypocrisy of selecting 3 candidate sites and then choosing the one with the highest potential ecological impact and trumpeting it as a new Eco-town.