SCEPTICS of the Forest Centre Integration project were warned they might end up with nothing at a discussion on the scheme last week. Ferris Cowper, the leader of East Hampshire District Council, responded to negative comments on the proposals by telling the audience: "We don't need to do this project - there are lots of other towns crying out for investment." Subsequent speakers agreed with the principle of improving the area between the Forest centres in Bordon, but were worried about elements of the designs. But one resident, who preferred to remain anonymous, later wrote to The Herald saying she was "amazed and disappointed at the humiliating way the residents of Bordon were treated" after raising their concerns. After the district council's economic development manager Mike Gibbs highlighted the fact that 90 per cent of residents who had been consulted on the project were in favour, the plans came under fire from two bodies central to the scheme. Diana Wilson, manager of the Whitehill and Bordon Citizens' Advice Bureau based at the community centre, said the CAB did not support the scheme. Jo Jordan, president of the Whitehill and Bordon Comm-unity Association which runs the Forest Community Centre, said the association had questions about security, vandalism and disabled parking. But Mr Cowper: "SEEDA money (funding half the £490,000 cost) is hard to get - the bureaucracy would make you give up. We have done all that and here we are and you don't like it. "You need to know that's the impression you're giving me tonight."
