HAVING read what the Labour Group said in the Review in the July 4 edition, I feel I must ask you to print the response that I sent  to them after receiving a copy of Bruce Hogan's press release.

I must now wonder what they think of the Independent Panel on Forestry's report, which most certainly recommends the opposite to what they are backing at Steam Mills. I have adjusted the wording for public consumption. – John Belcher, Joyford.

Dear Bruce, I just can't believe that the Labour Group are putting out such an outrageous and inaccurate statement about the college. I'm almost ashamed to be a Labour supporter. Talk about an unholy alliance with the worst bunch of Tories ever and their so-called Coalition.

Thank goodness that some of the Labour councillors on this side of the Forest are supporting the people of West Dean. This statement is driven by the Cinderford councillors and takes no genuine account of the welfare of the people of West Dean.

I went to a meeting this Tuesday with the college principal Greg Smith and his team and either he is lying or the situation is very different to what you suppose it is. He forcefully stated, after intense questioning, that it is isn't a done deal. Five Acres was sold on a buy-back clause over five years and if Steam Mills proves to be too expensive or if the ground is unsuitable for building on (which it will be, before a fortune is spent on it making it safe, at least £8,000,000 in the 2007 report and that before a full survey, it could be double now) he will go to his second option, which is to rebuild at Five Acres. He said that the Five Acres Campus would be in full use for at least two years and that no decision could be made until next summer after a full feasibility study, plus "I haven't even got the money yet." Do I trust him? Do you?

Well, they'll try to on fans, but they will be intensely scrutinising  all future events, along with their allies. 

This Labour Group statement, co-operating with the district council's actions, without any genuine consultation to the electors of West Dean, could kill the Labour Party's chances in future local elections around here for many years and will create a bad taste in the mouth and bitterness between Foresters, also for many years.

If the ordinary grass roots residents of the Coleford area weren't kicking up a fuss now, they would be 'beneath the notice' of your group and all that we could hope for would be a pat on the head, a few words "it's for your own good" and the roar of the bulldozers echoing through the Forest.

We now have the leader (your leader too) Cllr Patrick Molyneux, putting on the charm to us, albeit with a totally unworkable and ill-conceived idea for a new leisure centre on a rugby pitch and jun­ior school; also, the partial at least, ear of Greg Smith and at last he's getting informed of a few home truths.

At the last public meeting Bruce, you brought up the question of the Forest Theatre, which is being under and ill-used in many ways at the moment, after the College Drama Department, which was full, was cruelly and deliberately executed two thirds of the way through the academic year in 2009 and hireage charges have since been put up beyond the means of most local groups.

Well, I am in contact with the The Theatres Trust in London, whose purpose is to help theatres under threat you'll no doubt be pleased to hear. Funny, after you asked that question, which drew applause, I thought that you were in support of preserving the Forest Theatre, which you correctly pointed out, was the only purpose-built one in the Forest of Dean.

I am also in contact with Sport England about the loss of the playing fields.

The fans Committee are almost all working mums and dads around their 30s and 40s. They have never been involved in this sort of thing before and they have very little finance. But they do have dynamism and a huge belief in themselves that they have a just cause. Just the sort of people that Ed Milliband is attempting to reach out to in "the squeezed middle".

Well this statement will serve to make them angrier and more determined, as well as even more cynical about politicians off all levels. Do you want a succession of Harpers?

The good people of Cinderford, Lydney, Coleford and the rest of the Forest need help now, not in perhaps three to five years time after a fortune has been wasted in the middle of a capitalist bank engendered international recession.(where is the money coming from?) They need a new Xerox or equivalent. All efforts should go towards that.

Educationally, they need a fully supported excellent secondary school in Cinderford far more than a small satellite campus of Gloucester College. Don't you think that Gloucester won't cherrypick the best? It has been going on for a while already, it's easy to research. Surely, even the most blinkered person has caught on that in 2009 there was a 25 percent funding cut for Further Education  by the government and that in November 2010 more than 50 percent of students between the ages of 16 and 18 at the Royal Forest Of Dean College had their EMA £30 a week grants, that enabled them to be in fulltime education, chopped by the caring Chancellor Mr Osborne? This included the £15 bus fare.

Over 100 students marched to Coleford in protest. I was there, Where were all the politicians of the left on that occasion.

Ann Riley of Unison said "the hardest hit area by far is the Forest." No wonder a Tertiary College that was described by Ofsted as 'Outstanding' in 2009, was now in financial trouble.

It would have been the same anywhere in the Forest. The answer is not to run it down, verbally or literally, nor is it to move it several miles away on a reclaimed area of Statutory Forest, creating years of uncertainty and ugly building works, where student numbers could continue to fall (and will be difficult to get back) and also a black hole where West Dean's sports and cultural facilities were, to be filled with housing without draining or facilities; but to rebuild, upgrade and nurture the college on its present superb site (also leaving Lakers School alone).

Finally, there is talk that the Regeneration Board want the college to move to Steam Mills because they need it for financing the road and the drainage, not for educational rea­sons. True or not, that's what people think and this statement will only reinforce that opinion.

This reply is a personal one and doesn't represent fans, which is a non-party political group with a common aim, but they agree with its sentiments.

– John Belcher. PS: I never thought that I would ever see this day in the Forest of Dean. How things change.