The latest information on the bid, which was presented for the second time to a Government panel of experts last week, is being made available for the public at a question and answer session in the Forest Community Centre from 7pm to 8.30pm.

All residents are being asked by East Hampshire District Council to come along and have their say on the project.

EHDC's portfolio holder for Whitehill and Bordon, Cllr Ian Dowdle, said: "We have a public meeting which people have been pushing for and that is on Thursday at the Forest Centre.

"This is a chance for them to get more information, ask questions and express their point of view. What we really want is for people to come along to that meeting, because it is a chance for them to really know what is going on."

The district council believe winning eco-town status is the only way Whitehill and Bordon can bring new shops, jobs, transport system and infrastructure to the town without destroying its green identity.

If successful, the bid would bring millions of pounds of Government funding flooding in to help build the new town, which would consist of between 5,000 and 5,500 new homes on brownfield land.

"From all the indications from all the people I have spoken to in and around the town, the eco-town bid has been supported," Cllr Dowdle said.

"The eco-town bid will deliver an infrastructure and all the things people have been saying they want to see in the town over the past five years.

"It will deliver on jobs, it will improve our transport network and it will safeguard and help our environment.

"Yes, the town will get bigger and double in size, but over the next 20 years we would get this level of housing anyway.

"With this eco-town bid, the infrastructure that has been missing over the past 30 years, the infrastructure people have asked for, we can deliver."