As a resident of Cinderford I am upset that the Homes and Communities Agency has wasted in excess of £7.9m on the Cinderford Northern Quarter site, considering how the money could have been spent to benefit the town.

The money that came from the National Coalfields Programme to assist former coalfield communities was supposed to be spent on creating jobs, homes, leisure facilities and public space.

These are promised by the hype about the proposed Northern Quarter development but I don't believe that it will actually deliver.

•New employment: The designation of space in the Northern Quarter development as 'hotel' or 'employment floor space' does not in itself create new employment.

If a fraction of the money spent on surveying this site had been spent on financial incentives to attract new employers, Cinderford would have already benefited from considerable 'regeneration'.  •Homes: When the National Coalfields Programme refers to the creation of homes, I would have thought that it is affordable homes that are meant.

According to Forest of Dean District Council Strategic Housing section "with the applicant citing that due to the viability of the proposed scheme that it would be unable to provide affordable housing in accordance with Core Strategy Policy CSP.5 " and " a viability assessment of the applicants' revised proposal has been independently assessed by the council, which identified that the proposed development could not provide an affordable housing contribution and remain viable", it seems that uniquely the lack of viability of this scheme does not now make provision of any affordable homes a requirement.

•Leisure facilities. The only reference to leisure facilities that I have found so far is a hair salon, a library and a restaurant (which will all compete with the town centre provision) and a climbing wall (which will compete with the existing one at Beechenhurst).

•Public space. The scheme will actually reduce the amount of public space. It's an outrage and a shame that this money has been wasted but that is no reason to carry on pouring money into this ill-conceived scheme.

The hype about the promised regeneration of Cinderford has always propelled this project with little factual justification given.

For example, a press release by the HCA earlier this year claimed that the Cinderford Northern Quarter will deliver creation of up to 1,000 new jobs.

Well, 10 new jobs fits into the category of 'up to' 1,000 new jobs – the term 'up to' makes the statement meaningless in this context but carries an emotional message with which people engage.

This device is used constantly by television advertisers, (e.g. "kills up to 99.9 per cent of all known germs").

The Forest of Dean District Council has said that the jobs number has been calculated using the Homes and Communities Agency employment densities guide, based on the areas designated.

This means that a large proportion of the proposed jobs are attributed to the college, whereas one would expect at least most of the staff to transfer from Five Acres.

There is not enough detail in the scheme (such as the number of hotel rooms and type of hotel) to see how the actual numbers have been calculated. The actual job forecast calculations should be published in detail since job creation has been the main justification for the project and it should be a simple matter for the Homes and Communities Agency to make it public.

Everyone seems to think that the hybrid planning will receive planning approval. I only hope that the Dean Natural Alliance petition is successful in persuading the Secretary of State to intervene.

If you want commonsense to prevail go to the Dean Natural Alliance webpage (http://www.deannaturalalliance.org">www.deannaturalalliance.org) and click 'sign our petition'.

– Mrs Harding, Cinderford.