PROPOSALS which are bound to destroy the 1300 wildlife species and their ancestral breeding grounds, their sources of clean water and foraging habitats – in short their homes- within the Northern Quarter (NQ) – are being progressed under the guise of capitalising public land, irrespective of confiscating Key Wildlife Sites in which these species were recorded in surveys carried out by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and Natural England around the Steam Mills lakes.

The fact remains that the necessary pre-planning environmental assessment simply never took place, as the law requires. The culture of irresponsibility that has led to this situation is disgraceful and we Foresters all, must fight for our rights because this deplorable situation should never have arisen and would not be suffered in any other district within the UK.

This area is in close proximity to the water-table as well as high concentrations of coal seams, and underneath the proposed development site is a gargantuan underground lagoon, all within the ancient statutory forest.

Further the area has been undermined with old workings for hundreds of years, from where subsoils have been deposited on the surface.

This environment has uniquely been developed by vast ant colonies which underpin the food chain of micro-organisms and bacteria, fungi and amphibians, birds, animals, butterflies, moths and ultimately for human sustainability.

As a further consequence there are many ant species present that have evolved vast colonies, which are essentially made up of smaller (composting species) such as Myrmica lonea (a rare red ant, lowland species which inhabits waterlogged soils) and Formica picea (the black bog ant which builds grass tussocks close to water table).

Within this area the extensive ant colonies have colonised the tip of the old Churchway Colliery (1843 gale award under no-fold) – which in conjunction with the partial colonisation of adjoining mounds of back-fill from the open-cast, which was formed 140 years after Churchway, now provides a unique scientific comparator and time capsule to study the type of ants and how they have evolved within these depleted subsoil conditions.

However the Forest of Dean Council is attempting to mitigate their destructive proposals under the guise of translocation (transplanting species and their environment) and offsetting, for example the possible construction of a bat hotel (one out of 1300 species) following their ancestral destruction.

All of which in the context of the super-ant colonies described above and the dependence value of the other species, the question of mitigation for development by translocation / transplanting on any scale is simply physically impossible to achieve.

Therefore the possibility of the district council and Forestry Commission genuinely seeking alternatives and then finding compatible locations is zero. The whole pretence of translocations and mitigation proposals is totally flawed because it is impossible to up-root intact and then relocate and deposit these deep and widespread colony structures along with their vast hinterland food collection zones. Such ludicrous proposals as these bring the whole associated local government into disrepute and without a neutral MP to represent folk outside the Conservative bubble, we must fight our own corner to prevent the ancient forest being sold off piece by piece.

The district cabinet and its leader this week called for transparency and openness. Well Patrick, trying to sell off our treasured land by such land-exchange devices, is as open and transparent as the inside of a closed ebony box.

The only alternative is for those authorities pursuing these, unlawful proposals – is to grasp the nettle, act honestly and relocate themselves and their schemes a short distant southwards into the Cinderford itself, where developments will actually benefit the people of Cinderford and where infill land is available over more stable and deeper coal seams, away from key wildlife sites and for the reasons given above, to avoid any further attempts to implement their insane proposals which can only destroy fragile wildlife sites as bio-diversely sensitive as any brown field land on planet earth.

This is microcosm of the Serengeti National Park which Cinderford councillors should be proud of instead of attempting to parcel it up and capitalising our land, our forest and concreting all that is special and siphoning it off.

– Cllr Andrew Gardiner, Ruardean.