WHILE Bordon’s new-look Forest Shopping Centre is eagerly awaited - with no plans yet submitted for it or the 15 flats that will be part of the development - Bordon Area Action Group member Jack Warshaw fears regeneration will never happen and said the centre looked “about to die”.

In a letter to the Bordon Herald Mr Warshaw said that since the presentation for the rejuvenation of the centre was first discussed by Whitehill Town Council in June: “There are now six vacant shop units and two charity shops.

“The flower beds have been paved over and out-of-hours steel roller shutters are down on all the shops.”

He added that there were “none of the promised restaurants, pubs or places to sit in the vicinity”.

“The whole place looks about to die,” he said. “Soon, I fear, there will be nothing left except Lidl and Wilko, which own their sites and do not rent.”

From the start, the Bordon Area Action Group (BAAG) put up strong opposition to the masterplan for the new eco-town, now “green town”.

“The Forest Centre has been condemned to oblivion in the plan with no real prospect of any replacement, let alone a new town centre any time soon,” he said. “In the words of a well-known song ‘When will they ever learn?’ (Pete Seeger’s Where Have All the Flowers Gone?),” Mr Warshaw said

“Rome was not built in a day,” was the response from Graham McPhail, of London’s Orchard Grove Asset Management, representing Vale Investors, an international group which has an office in Acton, west London, and which pulled the centre out of bankruptcy

Questioned about when the regeneration work would start and when the application to build the flats would be submitted, Mr McPhail replied: “I prefer not to comment at the moment.

“This is not the first negative letter you have received about the shopping centre and it is from an expected source of criticism. I do not think this letter merits a reply as it would just give the writer oxygen to keep sending destructive comments.

“People have the right to air their views but I think this would be a great pity as the centre is moving in the right direction.

“Rome was not built in a day, and we are trying to turn around many years of decline that has led to the shopping centre failing.”

It was in June that Christopher Willans, representing Vale Investors, told the town council’s policy and resources committee, that his company had 25 years of experience in rescuing distressed shopping areas, and he felt the Forest shopping Centre fitted the description.

He got the backing of the councillors after presenting a plan to create a stylish, bright and welcoming place, with a variety of individual shops with new trading hours that would allow businesses to stay open late.

Also included in the scheme were 15 two-bedroom flats along the boundary of the car-park areas.

He told councillors his company would bring the centre, opened in 1986, into the 21st century replacing the huge flower beds, with more stylish, movable flora and fauna, and the glass atrium that casts a yellowish glow over the shopping area would be taken down to allow more light.

Light-coloured paint along the undercroft of the roof would give it a bright look and new lighting would be installed so that even on overcast days the centre would have a welcoming appearance. Also better signage would make it easier to find.

The developers, he said, had a good track record and were not afraid of taking on such a project, but they wanted to do it while working in partnership with the local authority.

One of the biggest innovations planned, he said, was removing the doors that shut down the centre at 8pm, which he called a throw back to 1980s architecture. “We now have a good monitoring system and security to let us have the centre open at night and this would allow for a good class restaurant for evening diners and maybe a wine bar,” he said. “Other traders might want to come in if we get late-night shoppers.”

He was aware there were empty shops and the closure of the HSBC bank was disappointing, but the empty building would make an ideal unit for a restaurant or tea room. He said: “We will reinvigorate the Forest Shopping Centre as we have done it before in other shopping areas in the country and they are now thriving.”

But on Wednesday hairdresser Sarah Larvan, owner of Blonde Ambition, said all that had been done was the removal of the flower beds. “I think they might be planning to have the markets on those sites instead,” she added. “We haven’t heard of any other work about to start or anything about the new flats.”