It was the siege of Cinderford last week, with traffic lights and road works at Steam Mills and Valley Road repelling invaders from the north and the east. Our visit to the new Forest Medical Centre at Cinderford was severely delayed by road works at the Steam Mills/Nailbridge area at the north of the town, near to the old coalmine at Hawkwell

It was clear that any further visit to the town from the north would be severely obstructed, so for another medical appointment the following day we ingeniously thought that the town should be approached from the west, via the Speech House, and Valley Road. Alas, the road workers were too smart for us, and another set of roadworks at the Valley Road again impeded our journey to the Medical Centre. The solution seems to be to allow plenty of time to negotiate the apparently capricious works of the county transport department.

It must be difficult for our county transport team, criticised by road users when there are potholes and other road hazards, and then facing further criticism when action is taken to repair these obstacles, causing further irritating road delays. But surely the repair work should be scheduled to avoid multiple road closures or traffic light obstructions putting a major Forest town under siege. As frequent visitors to, and patients at, the new medical centre at Cinderford we will in future plan our journey there to allow plenty of time to negotiate traffic lights, potholes and other obstructions.

Cinderford is now the medical facilities centre of the Forest. The medical centre has taken over the health provision for Cinderford and the surrounding areas which were formerly served by surgeries at Westbury and Ruardean. Those surgeries still survive, but much of the work has been taken over by the bright and well-equipped new centre at Cinderford. And the new hospital just down the road from the medical centre looks after patients who would otherwise have to go to the rather impersonal and remote hospital at Gloucester. The tired old hospitals at Lydney and the Dilke on the road from Cinderford to the Speech House have now been quietly abandoned, having served their purpose for over a century. We have new local facilities for local people. Isn’t our National Health Service wonderful?