A FURIOUS district councillor has told of her frustration as the long-running Five Acres site saga in Berry Hill hits another roadblock – and this time, it is nothing to do with the local authority or the Homes England organisation.

It will be a year ago on October 10 since the Forest of Dean Council’s full authority meeting voted to buy the former Gloucestershire College campus at Five Acres for a pound.

But now the political turmoil in Westminster has had a knock-on effect down the line – and the Five Acres project has become a victim.

Months of delays and frustrations since the decision was made to buy the campus has seen Homes England and former Secretary of State for Housing, Communites and Local Government James Brokenshire MP drag their feet on giving the deal the green light.

Homes England withdrew their request for consent from Mr Brokenshire in June only to re-submit it to Mr Brokenshire’s successor Robert Jenrick MP in July.

And last month, the council’s Strategic Overview and Scrutiny Committee backed holding an inquiry into the affair which would have the committee’s deputy chairman Cllr Jackie Fraser in charge.

But, because of the trouble over Brexit in Parliament, this big inquiry, which would have seen the senior management of Homes England brought before the Forest of Dean Council’s scrutiny committee to explain themselves, has been put on hold.

And that has left Cllr Fraser incensed as she and the residents of Berry Hill, who have been without leisure facilities there for nearly 12 months, have no idea when the approval will come.

Cllr Fraser said: “I was informed a few weeks ago that Homes England had re-submitted the application for approval to the Secretary of State. So with that in mind, I thought about it very carefully and it meant something was moving because they had been informed we were going to do this scrutiny (inquiry).