Someone once said: ‘if there’s a smell in the cellar, eventually it will be a stink in the attic.’

Although this area of land has been earmarked for development for some time now, nobody could have foreseen the way it has turned out and this development of 230 homes only makes matters worse.

The Forest of Dean District Council and its planning policies have not been kind to Newent or its community in recent times.

The piecemeal approach to developing this area has left us with roads that cannot easily deal with the current level of occupancy, let alone a further 230 homes.

We accepted a plan for 160 homes whereas the planning inspector, during review, wanted 180.

If this wasn’t bad enough, an indicative plan or artist’s impression brought forward for 230, which could actually end up being a far higher number, was described at the planning meeting as a “windfall”.

I doubt the community of Newent will consider this a windfall or bonus, I know I don’t.

I received an unsolicited “briefing” a week before the planning meeting from the chairman of the committee explaining that “we have to pass this or other developers will take us (Forest of Dean District Council) to appeal on other sites and we will lose this and the other sites.”

I consider this outside of the remit of the committee chairman and an indication that the decision, for him, was already made and that his decision was based on other sites in the district rather than the site they were in the process of judging, both of which I believe are against the rules.

– Cllr Len Lawton (Con), Forest of Dean District Council, (Con, Newent Central).