SO it seems Councillor Graham Morgan's old man's hand-me-down tales are now the accepted expert opinion on the mining legacy at the Northern Quarter site.

If this is the case, I hope the Forestry Commission, the local councillors and the Gloucestershire College authorities have noted this, so when, if something happens to the young people at this proposed but unneeded and unwanted college, they will be able to justify, at the inevitable enquiry, the basis on which they based their decision on.

Safety and cost should be the most paramount considerations here. Safety above all else because schools and old mining areas simply do not mix.

The decision process should be based on worst case scenario investigations by recognised expert consultants, to be absolutely certain that a catastrophic event would not occur just because of a few people's ambitious empire building.

The inevitable cost of a proper and comprehensive site investigation will no doubt be enormous and the end result could throw up the wrong result. This is the risk of venturing into the coal crop area of the mining legacy when there is absolutely no cause to go there!

Just look at the cost of this project – a regeneration officer employed just for Cinderford at £40-50,000 or more a year of our money, just to find ways of extracting millions more public money from elsewhere. With millions already spent around Cinderford we now see the kind of exploitation that got the country into the mess it's in.

Also, the Forestry Commission's hand in this Northern Arc thing is questionable, it is not in their remit to go selling off areas of Statuary Forest as huge as this for this purpose without exceptionally good reason, this is again something else that needs scrutinising especially when you consider that while HOOF was helping to save Commission's skin the FC was aware all the time of what they were planning to do with this land. Talk about stabbed in the back! Who needs enemies with friends like the Forestry Commission.

For Councillor Morgan to make out this is industrial land is unbelievable to say the least. £0.5m of public money was spent on it in the early 1990s (millions in today's money), landscaping and turning this area into a beautiful wildlife habitat for the public to enjoy, with another £40,000 to £50,000 spent by the angling club, government guidance stipulates that, previous industrial land that has been greened by public money should not be considered for inclusion in Development Plans, and therefore ought not be developed and so on.

So in conclusion it is utter stupidity trying to play the expert in mining on the strength that your father worked down the mines just to get your own way; and a big mistake to think we're all that gullible to swallow it.

IG Ellis

Lower Milkwall