Wayne Hemingway tours Whitehill Bordon on his bike

Designer Wayne Hemingway MBE, who is backing Whitehill Bordon’s bid for Eco-town status cycled round the town this weekend and said it had “even greater potential than he had imagined”.

Cllr Ian Dowdle, the portfolio holder for the town, showed Wayne and his wife Gerardine around the sites on his mountain bike on Saturday.

The group spent an hour cycling round the area to see the Ministry of Defence land and possible areas for development.

Wayne, the co-founder of the fashion label Red or Dead, was on the Government’s ‘challenge panel’ which looked at each of the Eco-town bids.

He is also the chairman of Building for Life – an organisation which promotes excellence in the quality of design of new housing.

The 47-year-old also runs Hemingway Design with his wife. The award-winning company specialises in affordable, well-designed housing.

Wayne and Gerardine were both awarded an MBE in 2006.

He met with East Hampshire District Council’s chief executive Will Godfrey and revealed that he would like to support Whitehill Bordon’s bid to become an Eco-town at the end of last year.

Wayne, who lives near Chichester, in West Sussex, said: “This is a really exciting project and the town’s got even greater potential than I had imagined.

“I’d seen parts of the town before when I’d driven through but this was my first chance to have a really good look at the main sites and the MoD land.

“And it was great to do the tour on bike.

“Whitehill Bordon is a really great place to live and it will be made even better if it gets Eco-town status.

“It’s such a brilliant site because it’s brownfield land but is surrounded by beautiful greenery.

“It was great to see the existing facilities like ‘Little Wembley’ and there would be lots of opportunity to upgrade these kinds of things as well as introducing more up-to-date ones into the town.

“I was pleased to see that there is a great opportunity for sustainable living as some housing could be upgraded and this would also be quite cost effective.

“Some of the existing housing could be made to be very attractive and comfortable to live in without having to knock it all down.

“All in all there is a real opportunity to make the town a better place to live and work and it will be great to be part of that.”

The group met in the High Street and went through the Woolmer Industrial Estate, to Viking Park and then down Hogmoor Road.

They then went through the officers’ quarters and through the woods by Louisburg Barracks and past the Officers’ Mess.

They then cycled up to the recycling centre, past the skate park and ‘Little Wembley’ and through the married quarters.

Cllr Dowdle then showed the Hemingways Prince Phillip Barracks and came back along the main road.

Cllr Dowdle said: “We cycled about five or six miles in an hour and we saw a good chunk of the town.

 “Wayne was extremely enthusiastic about the town and about its future improvement.  

“And he was incredibly excited about the quality of development we could have in the town.

“He was so positive about our bid for Eco-town status and thinks that the town is in such a good location with so much green space.

“It was great to show him around, especially on bikes, and I am delighted that he is backing our bid for Eco-town status.”