The Homes and Communities Agency has defended spending more than £150,000 securing old colliery buildings that it plans to knock down.

Despite the Northern United site in Steam Mills lying derelict and easily accessible for years, the HCA has appointed a security company which has guards working round the clock.

They have also put up palisade fencing and boarded up and secured the crumbling buildings at the site.

Following a Freedom Of Information request by Maurice Bent, who worked at the former Northern United colliery as a carpenter, the HCA revealed they had spent £152,412 securing the site since the beginning of the year – which works out at around £645 per day.

"I asked the question because I'm concerned that this is a waste of public money," said the Ruardean Hill pensioner.

"We were on the committee and tried to get the Coalfields money out into the community but couldn't.

"Instead they're spending the money on security and consultants for the regeneration who never took one iota of notice of us."

The Northern United buildings stand in the path of a massive regeneration scheme which could see the former mining site transformed into a new gateway to Cinderford.

A group of historians and former miners have campaigned to have the buildings retained but regeneration chiefs say they have no architectural value and will be demolished.

A HCA spokesman defended the costs, saying leaving the site unsecured was not an option.

"As a Government body the safety of the public is paramount to us," he said.

"The Northern United site includes dilapidated buildings which contain asbestos so it's critical we have in place appropriate measures to ensure members of the public do not access high risk areas.

"The current security situation is very expensive and can't go on forever. We will be reviewing the situation next month."

The HCA spokesman said they could not go ahead with demolition work without the necessary planning order which had been applied for "some months back".