I WISH to make a short reply to the letter published in the Forest Review (December 28), submitted by Dave Harvey and entitled 'Barrel scraping'.

The article published in your newspaper was submitted as a press release on behalf of Dean Forest Voice  and was not a letter from a private individual.

The article was sent to your newspaper by myself as Secretary of Dean Forest Voice.

Contributors to the article included mining, wildlife and ecology experts. It was not compiled in haste.

The comparison with the Aberfan disaster was made to illustrate how  a disaster  may have  been avoided if  only those in charge were prepared to listen to advice and act on it.

The important lesson to be learned from the Aberfan disaster was best summed up by the Davies Inquiry that reported in 1967.

The judge summed up by saying that the Aberfan disaster was a terrifying tale of bungling ineptitude by many men charged with tasks for which they were totally unfitted, of failure to heed clear warnings and of  a total lack of direction from above.

We do not want to see such an error repeated here, and we doubt Dave Harvey does either.

– Keith Morgan, Broadwell.