BEING a District Councillor for Longhope and Blaisdon I find myself very lucky in having two wards like these villages.

Blaisdon is a lovely little hamlet village with lovely period houses and a very well used and popular country inn.

Longhope is a working village with a small industrial site, Richard Read transport and Longhope Welding Company, all of which employ people from the area.

It also has attractions such as Harts Barn Craft Centre and Dick Whittington Family Leisure Park that is organising things to happen in April such as a Food Festival etc. Unfortunately this was not entered in the Forest Visitor's Guide. Also coming in the spring is a new attraction called "Sphereing" whereby you travel downhill in a giant ball, an attraction set up by one of the local farmer's sons.

Also when we had trouble with the floods villages joined together to help themselves and others and with the help of the Forest District Council have been striving to eliminate this happening again.

So with all the gloom of recession and some of the bad things I have to deal with it is nice to see things happening for the good. – Dave East, Forest of Dean District Council, Longhope and Blaisdon.

Prosecute the litter bugs

WE live in one of the best counties in England and certainly one of the most desirable places to live in the United Kingdom. We have the most delightful aforested area in any developed country of Northern Europe, and yet it is the most disgraceful that I have ever visited in my world travels.

The filth and litter that adorn both the roads and inner forest are something we should not want to show outsiders. As a keen member of the Lydney French Twinning Association, our French visitors on their last visit also remarked on the amount of rubbish and litter that adorn our roads, pathways, kerbs and places of beauty.

We have almost 2 million unemployed in the UK and a number of refugees all drawing taxpayers' money; our housing taxes (rates) are some of the highest in Europe and yet we have to contend with shuffling through filth and rubbish.

Whenever I point out an area to the local authority that needs cleaning, it is done quickly. Through your paper I would suggest we start to name and shame the areas that need doing, and encourage business premises and householders to keep their frontages and surrounding area cleaned.

In fact some of the doctors' surgeries, places of clinical and hygienic excellence, do not look too clean.

This used to be one of the cleanest countries of Europe and one always scorned our immediate neighbours on the Continent for being dirty, but we have learned quickly to be worse than them.

If you want to see a really filthy village go to Yorkley – it would take first prize for being the filthiest kept village in Gloucestershire.

What has happened to the British? We used to be a clean proud nation.

I clean the area for 500 metres in and around our property and I am astounded to find all sorts of discarded fast food containers and other rubbish which could only have come from Gloucester.

There are heavy fines for discarding litter and rubbish and yet nobody appears to be prosecuted; is this another useless law? – Disillusioned Forest resident.