THIS is an open letter to Forest of Dean District Council.

Early next year, the scrutiny committee will be publishing its findings on the future of Five Acres.

This letter is written to Patrick Molyneux, Brian Robinson, and the members of the council who make up the cabinet, and the independents who support them in particular Norman Stephens, Philip Burford, Arthur Thomas, Marion Winship, and Roy Birch.

We implore you to listen to your electorate. They are dangling from a very fine thread. The Forest towns are dying, and you need to wake up.

We are asking that you show some vision, imagination, and above all, some ambition for the future of the Forest, which does not just involve house building.

Those who live here, and those moving here, need sustainable facilities.

You have told us you are cutting funding for leisure facilities. But we need swimming pools, sports centres, indoor entertainment, and places for young people to meet and play.

We need to keep Foresters healthy and happy, and their children busy. We need to be put on the map and stay on the map, as a Forest community. We need to say to the rest of the country – "Here, we have things for you to do, and places for you to spend your holiday money."

We live in a uniquely beautiful environment, one we want to continue to be proud of. Don't let it go down the pan. Find investors, find partners. Do what you were elected for! The people of the west and the whole Forest of Dean, are looking to FANS to give voice to their continued fears that their future wellbeing and life standards will be undermined and diminished by this cabinet's perceived destruction of

the public facilities at Five Acres.

Your time is running out, Mr Molyneux et al. Use it to make a difference. Leave a legacy other than car parking charges, for your own sakes as well as for our children and grandchildren. Start planning a balanced future. Keep a positive, open mind and look at the bigger picture.

– Jamie Elsmore, Julia Sykes, Jo Revill, Kay Thomas, Cllr Tim Gwilliam, Cllr Eileen Dyer, John Belcher, Alison Eddy, Cllr Colin Guyton, Cllr Paul McMahon, Sue Giles, Jane Baldwin, Angela Gardiner, Cllr Basil Whittington, Dot Sharp, Geoff Wellings, Roger James and all the members and supporters of FANS who love this Forest and want to see it flourish.