FOREST planners will decide the future of a controversial Cinderford housing scheme next week.

Gloucestershire County Council hopes to build 13 homes on the split site of the former St Whites School despite fears over road safety.

Hundreds of residents say the existing traffic bottleneck on Buckshaft Road cannot be widened to accommodate two way traffic and parking unless the old school site boundaries are changed.

Their protest is being backed by both Ruspidge and Soudley and Cinderford councils and district and county councillor Graham Morgan.

Two months ago, Shire Hall mandarins were also accused of blatantly reneging on a promise to provide off street parking for the new St White’s Primary School in Cinderford.

But Neil Corbett, the county council’s Head of Property Services, denied at the time that such an agreement was ever made.

In reply to a residents’ petition urging the county council to scrap the housing plan and create a parking area he said: “The ‘provision of off street parking’ on Buckshaft Road was not part of the proposals for the new school nor was it a planning condition of the planning consent for the new school.”

But Cllr Graham Morgan, former chairman of the county council, said: “This is nothing more than a pack of lies from a bunch of hypocrites with a grab it and run mentality.

“A private developer would never get away with anything as blatant as this.

“I am not against redeveloping the old school site, but they need to redraw the boundaries to make room for both a parking and dropping off area for the school and the widening of Buckshaft Road to remove the current bottleneck.”