A hidden agenda?

I APOLOGISE for taking up more of your valuable paper space but following recent comments I consider a response is called for.

Following a request made by the Senior Verderer I made my original report to his Court on the implications of past mining, particularly from Northern United Colliery, on the proposed development of the Northern Quarter at Steam Mills. I commented that this site at Steam Mills was probably the worst that could have been chosen. I have not changed my mind, in fact, with further information becoming available it could even be far worse than originally thought. Some of this detail I should have remembered earlier.

Dave Harvey and Les Ruck's comments leave me somewhat at a loss.I do not know what Coleford Boot Sale, The Scowles, Clearwell Caves, Puzzlewood etc, etc has to do with building a college at Steam Mills, so I will ignore these ramblings.

Certainly, colliery face work did allow for the collapse of the roof following the forward travel of the coal face but this inevitably leaves a void, granted at a higher level, but these cavities would now be filled with water.

The clay beds below the coal seams will flow when wet and with the excessive water pressure in Northern is more than likely to have been swilled away in the form of a fine slurry.

As previously stated, water is still discharging from the coalfield's lower series at Old Norchard at the rate of 72 million gallons per day, the same amount that was flowing into the river Lyd 50 years ago, so conditions have obviously not changed over this considerable period of time.

Workings from Northern United are around 950 feet below Nofold Green (Graham Morgan's located site, Dave and Les) where there is a head of water at this location of around 600 feet. Also for those interested it would be over a 1,000 feet head against the Eastern United boundary at the bottom of the "H" and "J" Dipples with a water pressure of approaching 450psi or 30 Atmospheres. Frightening!

Many people have requested an explanation to the effects of water pressure, but not being an hydraulics engineer it is difficult, even for me to describe, but I will endeavour to give a couple examples:

•The hull of a World War 2 German U-boat would literally be crushed inwards at 600 feet depth. (The same depth and water pressure as under Nofold green).

•Imagine an empty "Coke" can being squeezed flat, this is what would happen to those submarines.

Mr Editor, many of your readers would have seen the heavy duty manhole cover, heavier than a man could pick up, outside Coleford Police Station in Lords Hill. This was lifted in storm time, to about six inches above road level and held there and this is with less than around 400 feet head of water.

No-one knows, or is likely to for that matter, the full effects of water pressure on these old abandoned workings but certainly the greatest prudence and caution should be observed at all times. As I have previously stated it will probably cause no problem as long as the status quo remains.

Graham Morgan so rightly states that any loss of water from the Lower series of the coalfield will have serious repercussions on many other areas in the Forest, so why construct another building to cater for young local students, in a similar location and that's not to mention a 100-bed hotel and offices as well? Councillors could have chosen a far better site, within the Cinderford parish, if they were genuinely looking for a replacement site for the college.

To summarise the proposals for Nofold Green, it is to build a college, an hotel and other buildings on a dirt tip, which is intermixed with clay, some 100 or maybe 200 feet deep (again I am using Graham's figures as I have none of my own on the opencast site) that may very well have shats and workings going well below the bed of the excavated area. It is well known that the standard of correlation and orientation of old mines is somewhat dubious so no certainty of the position of these workings are possible and very expensive drilling operations would be necessary to determine their existence.

Cinderford Town Council's 2007 and 2009 reports clearly outlines the steps necessary to build on this area which include deep piles for structural support. The number or the depth is obviously not known and if they don't go below the Northern United Coleford Highdelf seam workings will be supported in an area of fractured strata as stated by Dave Harvey and Les Ruck. It takes very little imagination to realise the cost implications even before building work commences.

Over 100 pits have been located by The Coal Board on this site and that is not to mention the ones which were never recorded. It is no wonder that there is considerable concern for the future. Duck Pit collapse was a very timely reminder as to what can happen and Dave Harvey and Les Ruck's comments of "so what?" is truly irresponsible particularly coming from ex-miners. I?cannot believe this was written by these men.

In a reply to Mike Jones's question at the recent West Dean meeting, Mr Greg Smith stated that he had never had sight of the 2007 report. This statement left me cold with all the alarm bells ringing very loudly. I can only ask, is there a hidden agenda? Is it not time that the truth came out?

To date, I have not mentioned the Berry Hill/Five Acres complex and would like to express my personal views on this site.

As a taxpayer I am very annoyed to have a decision to build houses on this site decided by Mr Greg Smith and his "quango" of committee members and not our elected representatives or the community at large.

If a sale was contemplated then "outline planning approval" should have been sought before any sale was instigated. Approval would have increased the land value dramatically.

Were competitive tenders obtained for this sale?

There is not the infrastructure to carry on house building in this location. Sewage disposal is probably the greatest problem to future development. All drainage would be directed to The Lonk Pumping Station, which is already overloaded particularly in storm time. From there it is pumped and gravitated through Coleford where both the foul sewers and storm water culverts are way over capacity and many sections in a very poor state of repair – just ask Mike Jones, he has worked in all these locations. The Coleford culvert acts as an overflow conduit to the foul sewer and inevitably overflows into households and commercial premises on its route to Newland.

Newland sewage works was last upgraded in 1966 in conjunction with Beecham's factory. The number of properties added since that date would be staggering plus the added outfall from the above factory. Can this works cater for what is being asked for it? Mike Jones will tell you that the treated outfall into the Wye is now totally unacceptable and he should know – he lives on the outfall side of the works.

The A4136, the only link line through this part of the Forest is totally overloaded, particularly at peak times. There are some 18 changes of speed limit between Coleford and Over Bridge, with only one stretch of about 300 yards where it is possible to legally and safely overtake between here and Gloucester.

How the regular commuters put up with these restrictions on a daily basis I do not know. Patients having to go to the county hospitals, have to leave home up to two hours before they normally would due to the restrictions on this road and then there are those wishing to catch a train at Gloucester.

On June 21, 2002 the Review reported on the Highways Authority proposal to improve the A4136 from Huntley to Monmouth. Let me quote the Review on this occasion: "The changes to the road, which links with the A40 at each end and is the lifeline for Cinderford, Mitcheldean and Coleford." Not one spade has been raised. What have our county councillors done in ten years to achieve access improvement if only to promote industry? Even with this report the authority had no idea what to do on Plump Hill and Mitchel­dean.

Without improvements to the A4136 and for that matter the A40 in Glou­cester, extra vehicles coming from extra houses, cannot be tolerated unless there is an acceptance of daily gridlock, the waste of natural resources in fuel use, and, of course, people's time is unacceptable. Is it not time for drastic action to be taken at grass roots level before creating even greater problems?

Concluding, the existing college is ideally sited in a complex of junior and secondary school establishments with a theatre, swimming pool and sports facilities both in and outdoors and is already larger than the unit proposed. Why on earth change such a wonderful arrangement not to mention the terrific financial burden, unless, as I have previously asked, is there a hidden agenda?

I?believe that possibly the only way forward is for an independent judicial review to be called which, hopefully, would bring everything to light.

– Paul Morgan, Coleford.