DOZENS of angry residents, turned away from a packed public meeting on the controversial A3 tunnel scheme at Hindhead, were left asking why organisers had chosen "one of the smallest venues in town" for one of the most eagerly anticipated debates in years.

Queues of people were denied access to the Haslemere Museum for the meeting, which was described by many as "a shambles".

The crowd jeered organisers of the event, from the Waverley branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), who were forced to apologise.

Matters got worse the following day when an exhibition of the tunnel plans opened at the Devil's Punchbowl Hotel on Friday.

More than 1,000 people arrived to see the presentation and talk to Highways Agency staff.

Again, the choice of venue was criticised by many concerned residents who were keen to inspect the tunnel route and details of the scheme.

Waverley Borough councillor for Haslemere Ann Mugford tried and failed to get to the exhibition last week.

She said: "Having negotiated my way from Haslemere through the heavy southbound A3 traffic I found the hotel car park was totally inadequate for the purpose and full.

"I had no alternative other than to reverse into the heavy A3 traffic to get away. That was enough for me and I went home."

She added: "How could such a location be used for what was bound to be a very well-attended event?"

On Thursday evening staff at the museum and CPRE officers were forced to stop letting people in some 20 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin because of fire safety regulations.

Many called for the event to be cancelled altogether so that it could be reconvened at new venue and at a later date.

Of those who managed to get into the meeting, many had to stand in the aisle, as more than 150 filled the humid Haslemere Museum gallery to capacity.

Organised by the CPRE's Waverley branch after its agm, the meeting was intended as an opportunity for those involved to discuss how a toll-free tunnel could be achieved for Hindhead.

But some people took the opportunity to use it as a forum to air grievances about potential problems the tunnel may cause.

Concerns raised at the meeting included tunnel safety, the problem of rat-running in Grayshott and equestrian access.

A series of presentations were given by the Highway's Agency's project team leader Paul Arnold and traffic planning consultant Dr Denvil Coombe.

Dr Coombe explained that their study had come to the conclusion that a toll-free tunnel was essential for the scheme to have ever been accepted by the government.

He said that even a charge of 50p would result in road users finding alternate routes rather than pay, which would only increase rat-running and traffic congestion.

CPRE chairman John Thorpe acknowledged the people who had been refused access to the meeting.

He said: "We realise that the decision to provide a tunnel at Hindhead would be of great interest, but we were quite unprepared for the number of people who arrived for the meeting.

"It was quite understandable why people who were turned away are angry."

He added: "We are very sorry that the Haslemere Museum could not accommodate all those who came along, but we will organise another meeting which we will publicise."

The second public meeting has now been confirmed for Wednesday, October 17, at Grayshott Village Hall.