I BELIEVE it is essential to respect the opinions and convictions of the letter writers in the Review, even when vehemently disagreeing with them and Di Martin is no exception.

But may I point out that it nonplussed me to see that she was quoting the late Councillor Arthur Cooper as part of her justification for ripping up an area of the Statutory Forest for a 'Regeneration' scheme for the nearby town of Cinderford.

As a fully paid-up member of the Labour Party and a district councillor for Cinderford, surely she is aware of the fact that Mr Cooper, a Forest of Dean Labour Councillor of high repute for many years, tore up his membership card after he disagreed with a change in Party rules, left the Forest of Dean Labour Party and formed his own Party, which he called the Moderate Labour Party.

Gathering a number of erstwhile Labour Party members and supporters around him, he and others then stood for several seats that were occupied by Labour district councillors and ousted them at the local elections, causing the Labour group to lose overall control of the council.

Mr Cooper became a thorn in the side of the local Labour Party for years and even after his demise, the Moderate Labour Party continued to have members elected, until, without his leadership, it gradually faded away and disappeared into the dustbin of history.

Unfortunately, during its existence, the MLP did a lot of damage to the Labour cause in the Dean and Ms Martin's use of that rather over-dramatic and specious quote by the late Arthur (considering opencast mining brought very little employment benefit to the Forest, but plenty of environmental pollution around the area for years) does her own cause no good at all.

May I also humbly suggest that she buys herself a new OS map of the Forest of Dean and note that there is more to it than Cinderford and that as a district councillor, along with all the other councillors, she at last assumes responsibility for the welfare of the whole of the Forest area. Coleford, Lydney and their satellite villages especially, are just as in need of practical help as her home town, but this obsession with Steam Mills means that they just aren't receiving enough of it to be of any real value.

– 'Old' Labour supporter.