Bordon is a town in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It lies in the interior of the royalWoolmer Forest, about 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Alton. The town forms a part of the civil parish of Whitehill which is one of two contiguous villages, the other being Lindford. The civil parish is on the A325, and near the A3 road between London and Portsmouth, from which it is buffered by the rise of the wooded Woolmer Ranges. Bordon is twinned with Condé-sur-Vire in Normandy, France.
Unlike its nearest towns, Petersfield, Farnham and Alton, Bordon has not been a market town, having developed as a military area. Many of the facilities are near the former A325, a toll road (turnpike) that connected Farnham to the A3 to its south and passed though Bordon and Whitehill; the A325 now by-passes the built-up area. Local facilities include The Phoenix Theatre and Whitehill and Bordon Leisure Centre.
Education
Primary schools in Bordon include Bordon Infant School, Weyford Nursery, Woodlea School and Weyford Primary. Secondary education facilities include Oakmoor School on Budds Lane and Hollywater School, a Special Education establishment. Bordon was also home to the Future Skills Centre, a £3.8 million construction training centre which was part of the Basingstoke College of Technology group until 2024.[citation needed]
In November 2019, Mill Chase Academy closed after 60 years, being replaced by Oakmoor School.[2]
In 2009, the governing Labour administration nationally announced Bordon as one of its tentative Eco-towns in consultative, outline plans.[5] This, dovetailed with the Town Council's 'Green Town Vision', would see the development of Whitehill-Bordon as a carbon-neutral town with sustainable housing and business facilities. The existing Green Town Vision aimed to ensure that all new development of the town would by beneficial to the local environment, and the Eco-town would provide support and funding felt necessary to regenerate the few low standard homes and streets. The proposal initially earmarked 5000 new homes, along with supporting infrastructure, which would require extensive use of greenfield land and reallocation of ex-military land following discontinuance of local military bases.[6]
The scheme was generally supported by the local authority. Local residents objected to the plan's scale and features, citing the road-centric transport network, inevitable net loss of visual amenity, forest, few remaining cultivated fields, scale and diversity of habitats for the remnant Woolmer Forest. After the announcement of the Eco-town plan, a group of residents formed the Bordon Area Action Group, and opposed the scheme. They argued that the development failed sustainability tests, and claimed that consultation was rigged.[7] Other residents supported the scheme and consultation continued. During the coalition government of 2010-15 its likelihood waned. Funding was cut by half,[8] government looked more critically and skeptically into certain aspects.
The raft of project proposals continues and those awarded funding, such as free public-amenity internet, have been implemented.[9] The Whitehill & Bordon Masterplan was finalised in 2012.[10]