ALTHOUGH councillor Chris Mitchell admitted becoming “parents” of the Bor-don Inclosure for the next 80 years was “frightening”, town councillors agreed on Monday to accept a £280,300 loan enabling it to do so, as part of a deal with the district council.

The town council will pay back the loan with its share of developer contributions from the Quebec Park development, next to the Bordon Inclosure.

The vote marked the first step in Whitehill Town Council’s bid to become the legal owner of all the green spaces in Whitehill and Bordon so it can preserve and improve them for present and future residents.

The council did not have the funds to take over the 24 hectares (59 acres) of the Bordon Inclosure, which has been become a Suitable Area of Natural Green Space (SANG) under the town redevelopment, and so began planning, a year ago, how it could get this valuable town asset under its control.

The Inclosure, next to the Quebec Park development of 100 homes and a business hub, had been used as an Army training ground.

With developer contributions (payments made by developers under section 106 of the Town and Coun-try Planning Act 1990) beginning to flow in for the first of the new-town developments at Quebec Park, the town council turned to the district council to ask for a slice of the money for its Bordon Inclosure plans.

At no cost to the town council, it commissioned legal services from the district council, and worked with Bruce Collinson, from the district council’s White-hill and Bordon regeneration team, who attended the meeting and answered councillors’ questions.

The planning applications for the 100 homes at Quebec Park and 500 homes at the Louisburg Barracks site require the provision of a SANG for the public to use for recreation.

These two development sites are owned by the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency, while the Bordon Inclosure is owned by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation - the finance arm of the Ministry of Defence - and is the designated SANG, with planning permission, for the two developments.

There is a requirement that the SANG be managed prior to the first occupation of the first house and the Homes and Communities Agency, East Hampshire District Council, and the Defence Infrastructure Org-anisation have agreed that Bordon Inclosure SANG should be a pilot management project for the town council to demonstrate its ability to manage “new and improved” green spaces as part of the Whitehill and Bordon regeneration aims.

At Monday’s meeting of Whitehill Town Council’s amenities committee, chair-ed by Mr Mitchell, as well as setting up a new green-space sub-committee to help manage the scheme, a lease was signed with the Defence Infrastructure Org-anisation to enable the council to use and manage the site for 80 years, with a start date of January 1, 2016.

The council is also considering an agreement with the Deadwater Valley Trust for the trust to manage the Bordon Inclosure on its behalf. This will be discussed at the next amenities committee on October 26.

Now with all legal agreements in place, capital work to create a SANG is taking place. The town council, which wants to create a wider Friends of Green Spaces Group in the town, is due to take over the management of the Bordon Inclosure on January 1.

At Monday’s meeting Mr Mitchell said: “It is frightening for the town council to take over this Inclosure but we need to keep this SANG to be managed locally rather than led from Petersfield. It is encouraging that, because of our input into this, we will be parents of this land for all those years.”

Councillor David Cooper said of the Deadwater Valley Trust: “They will do a good job for us.”

Clerk Chris Youngs said the catalyst giving the town council the chance to control the Bordon Inclosure had been £366,900 the district council received in developer contributions for Quebec Park.

Councillor Roy Russell asked what would happen if the houses at Quebec Park were slow to sell.

Mr Youngs said there would be no problem as “we are well covered”. “It is then hoped the money from the Louisburg development will help in the next phase of our plan to control all the town’s green spaces,” he added.

Jamie Cummins, ranger with the Deadwater Valley Trust, said: “It’s great that we’re looking after Whitehill and Bordon’s fantastic natural environments and I can’t wait to see what the Bordon Inclosure is going to look like when the improvements are finished.”

Steve Pearce, director of the district’s Whitehill and Bordon Regeneration Project, said: “The regeneration is bringing many improvements to the town and transforming Bordon Inclosure into a wonderful green space is just one of them.

“I am pleased some of the funds from the new development are being used to improve the town’s green spaces.”