DISTRICT councillors have called in two of their own cabinet's decisions for further scrutiny.

Of the two decisions one is the highly controversial approval to charge for car parking in Cinderford, Coleford, Lydney, Mitchel­dean, Newent and Redbrook, a proposal which has prompted the mayors of Lydney, Coleford and Cinderford to launch a petition aiming to stop the scheme in its tracks.

The second decision is less well known but has implications for the future regeneration and redevelopment of Lydney. It revolves around a local lettings plan agreement between the Forest of Dean District Council and Bromford Living (part of the Bromford Housing Group) on the MMC2 development of 200 new homes surrounding the Federal Mogul site.

Councillors Bill Evans, Jackie Fraser, Paul Hiett, Val Hobman, Don Pugh, Paul McMahon, and Helen Stewart have called in the car parking charge decision because they feel the decision breaches the council's corporate priority 'to encourage a thriving economy by supporting local businesses and attracting investment to create and sustain good quality local jobs and by supporting tourism to increase spending in the district'. The call in meeting looking at this issue will be held in the Council Chamber on Wednesday September 28 at 6pm. The council has assumed an income stream of £250,000 from parking charges by April 2013 and a further £100,000 by the end of 2015.

The decision to adopt the Higher Lydney Local Lettings Plan has been called in by Councillors Max Coborn, Paul Hiett, Di Martin, Graham Morgan, Bernie O'Neill and Don Pugh to enable close examination of the impact of the proposed changes on local people. The call in meeting for this will be held on Monday October 3 at 6.30pm in the Council Chamber.

Cllr Philip Burford, chairman of the Strategic Overview and Scrutiny Committee which will debate and make decisions on the call-ins, said: "Scrutiny is the way in which elected members can influence and steer decisions within the council.

"Amongst the functions of scrutiny there are two distinct areas of work. One of these is the ongoing review of matters that affect the whole district and at the moment as part of that process we are looking at issues including bus routes. In addition there is the function which enables members to call in key decisions taken by the Cabinet for more in depth analysis."

Cllr Burford added: "Following the Cabinet meeting of September 8 members of the council have called in two decisions made which related to car park charging and the housing allocation plan for Lydney.

"We are determined to examine the call in issues fully to add value to the function of the council."

•Members of the public are welcome to come along and watch the scrutiny process at the call ins and at committee meetings.