WHITEHILL Town Council expressed its dismay at the way in which East Hampshire District Council determine the fate of the Chase Road development site. Whitehill discussed the matter at Monday's meeting following a letter of complaint to the EHDC from Lindford Parish Council. The letter spoke of the parish council's dismay at some of the incidents which occurred at the meeting earlier this month. Lindford was especially displeased at the way that some people who were vocally opposed to the scheme appeared to be prevented from speaking out, even though they were permitted to at the previous one. "The most serious concern is about the advice given to councillors Carew and Mayes. Without actually committing himself to any definite advice, the strategic manager, Michael Lawther, suggested that, because of their membership of the Deadwater Valley Trust, these councillors might be in breach of the Members' Code of Conduct. The effect was that they felt obliged to withdraw from the meeting," wrote Mr Skelton-Smith, chairman of Lindford Parish Council. The letter went on to say: "The two councillors were told that they should have asked for advice in advance of the meeting so that a considered judgement could be given. In fact councillor Carew had raised the matter at the special north planning committee held in January in the Forest Centre. "On this occasion he was told quite clearly, by Mr Nick Leach, that his membership of the trust was not a problem, in line with my own understanding of the spirit of the Code of Conduct, and as suggested by councillor Ludlow at the February 23 meeting." These sentiments were echoed by Whitehill Town Council which described some of the events leading up to, and during the meeting, as "very peculiar and not done in the right way at all". The council was upset that town mayor Faith Thomas was not permitted to speak after speaking to EHDC the previous day to confirm that she would speak. "Having gone to all that trouble to prepare for a speech and speaking to me about it on Monday afternoon and the next day telling me that I would not be allowed to say anything is not right," said Mrs Thomas. She felt that the meeting was unfair because EHDC effectively weakened the opposition argument. "We were unfairly represented in the end because there were not too many batting for us," said Mrs Thomas. Members agreed that the meeting seemed to be carried out in poor way with important additional information being submitted to the council at the last minute, leaving them little time to absorb it and it was not made readily available to the public. They also felt there were discrepancies with councillors having to leave the meeting and speakers advised not to participate. The towncouncil will now write to East Hampshire District Council ask why it was not informed that Faith Thomas would be stopped from speaking on behalf of Bordon and Whitehill. The council will also comment on the fact the EHDC left it until the last minute before informing Mrs Thomas that she could not speak after asking her the previous day whether she was still prepared to.