DEAN Forest Voice fully supports Andrew Gardiner who has conscientiously performed his duty as a champion of our Forest, its communities and wildlife.

We call for him to be freed from the tyranny of corporate bullying by our Forest of Dean district council.

He is spuriously charged with 'bringing the council into disrepute'. How deceitful our local political establishment can be?

Back in 2011 our district council, gagging to jump on the anti Forest sell off bandwagon, adopted Andrew as its champion to protect our Forest.

But now, as the district council is bulldozing forward planning applications that result in partial Forest sell-offs at Cinderford Northern Quarter, it wants to shut him up because Andrew is honourably sticking to his principles and actively opposing the Northern Quarter proposals.

We need to consider what powers the district council has to assume authority over democratically elected councillors.

Personally I think, as an outcome of the Localism Bill, the district council leadership sees the council as a business.

Treating our elected representative body as a business they have invoked a quasi-corporate concept that all members must comply with the management or be bullied and punished.

Clearly our district council is not a business, it is a public service and elected representatives have every right to disagree.

Andrew Gardiner`s principled actions to regard the integrity of our publicly-owned Forest and its wildlife is part and parcel of his public service and is appreciated and applauded by many people across the Forest and beyond and by Dean Forest Voice.

I warmly welcome support for Andrew Gardiner.

– Phil Saunders, Chairman, Dean Forest Voice.