A BARRAGE of public opinion was voiced this week at the public inquiry into the Tesco application for a supermarket on the Bordon Motors site.

Some residents were angry at the fact that neither Somerfield nor the owners of the Forest Shopping Centre, Stockbourne, made personal representations at the two-day inquiry which was scheduled to finish on Wednesday afternoon.

However, others simply pleaded with the planning inspector to grant the store outline planning permission.

Eileen Grinter of Meadow View was one of the first to express her view about the non-attenders and said that they should have come to Bordon to listen to the residents.

She told The Herald: "It is a shame that Somerfield and Stockbourne have not attended the inquiry, where their evidence could have been properly tested under cross-examination.

"Their statements are easy to make but not so easy to justify. Their absence from the inquiry speaks volumes."

Somerfield spokeswoman Alison Birkett told The Herald that Somerfield believed that it had a strong enough case in writing and, as a result, did not feel the need to reinforce those points with a personal appearance by a representative.

The Herald was unable to contact Forest Centre manager Jane Loddy at the time of going to press.

At the inquiry on Wednesday morning inspector Michael Calshaw invited residents and councillors to voice their views.

Basil Smith, who spoke on behalf of Whitehill Town Council, said that previous planning policies had created an "anomaly where the most densely populated settlement in east Hampshire has been deprived of the facilities take for granted in areas of similar and smaller size".

Mr Smith that the Bordon Village Plan of 1966 which set aside land which houses the shopping centre was the starting point for the current situation.

"It was thought a new centre in the middle of the housing would be more convenient for those residents than the existing shops on the High Street and so policies were put in place in 1966 to protect this future shopping centre from competition.

"No new shops were to be allowed on the High Street/Chalet Hill and thriving shops wishing to expand their premises were not allowed to do so.

"This restriction continued until 1989 when it was finally deleted from the local plan following pressure from the town council but the damage had already been done.

"No doubt it was not the intention in 1966 to decimate the existing shopping and open a new 'competition free' shopping centre and no doubt it was not the intention for this village centre to meet the shopping needs for 4,500 new houses and 17,000 inhabitants in Whitehill, Bordon and Lindford, but this is what has happened.

"A monopoly on shopping provision has existed in Whitehill/Bordon for nearly 40 years. It is surely now time for us to move on and allow local people an equal opportunity with other towns to shop locally."

District councillors Zoya Faddy, David Kidd and Michael Watkinson also all voiced their support for the application.

Mrs Faddy said: "A thriving area will always attract yet more investment but we seem to be stuck in a time warp whilst other areas pass us by and we are in danger of being left further and further behind.

Mrs Faddy said that she has been involved with the drive to alter the local plan and designate the Bordon Motors site for food retail use.

"I argued the case at the district's committee for the Bordon Motors site to be designated for retail food shopping and eventually a modification to the first review was agreed by the district council.

"However, members were dissuaded by officers from including the modification in the plan on the grounds that an objection could trigger a delay to the adoption of the first review which was already well behind schedule.

"We were told any application would be considered on its merits. We did not realise at the time the implications of that planning phrase."

David Kidd said that residents supported the application because they wanted choice, something which they do not currently have.

He said: "That is why over half the population of Whitehill and Bordon get in their cars and vote with their right foot.

"I urge you to give the other towns in this area a break from Bordon's traffic, reduce the unnecessary damage to our environment and let us shop where we live."

Continuing with the traffic theme Peter Williams, who spoke on behalf of Bramshott and Liphook Parish Council, said that the village supports the application because it would reduce them amount of traffic in Liphook.

Sue Homer, whose business Snappy Tomato Pizza is on Chalet Hill, said that the businesses in that part of the town welcomed the Tesco application as "good news" because it would encourage shoppers to come back to Bordon.

Lee White from Tesco Action (pro-Tesco) Group said that Bordon has "low self esteem" after the last inquiry and that if the application was again rejected then it would send out the message that Bordon is "not worth a Tesco".

James Arbuthnot, who was Bordon's MP until Parliament was dissolved on Monday, told the inspector that the views expressed by the residents at the inquiry were same views expressed to him every week in his surgeries.

He also said that if the application is granted "it would send the signal that Bordon is open for business".

r The planning inspector will consider all of the evidence put forward and will make a recommendation to the secretary of state for the Environment, Transport and Regions over whether to grant outline planning permission later in the year.