IF the Forest of Dean District Council had carried out an accurate in-depth ecological assessment of the Cinderford Northern Quarter, Dean Forest Voice believes the proposed development would never have been put forward.

Local wildlife experts have independently identified the site as one of the most important and bio-diverse wildlife areas in Gloucestershire, supporting many rare species.

Cinderford Northern Quarter is exceptionally rich in wildlife. The Forest of Dean District Council is inviting comments on its Cinderford Biodiversity Strategy Technical Guidance (CBSTG), which proposes biodiversity offsetting as mitigation to avoid the impact of the development on wildlife and wildlife habitats. However, there are no mitigation  measures  capable of reproducing such a complex, diverse and important ecological site.

The site would be  irreversibly fragmented, changed and degraded for wildlife. New habitat can only be created at the expense of what is already there.

The widespread loss across the Forest of habitats due to the lack of grazing animals and unmanaged encroaching bracken puts an even greater value on the Cinderford Northern Quarter as a biologically important gem in the heart of the Forest, part and parcel of the Forest`s cultural heritage.

The CBSTG puts responsibility on the developer, as a condition of development proposals, to translocate wildlife species to new sites. This strategy process is fundamentally flawed because the success of translocation is often dubious.

The measures proposed in the CBSTG appear to have too many let-out clauses for developers to be held to account.

Furthermore, the creation of a new road with a hotel, college, and housing is highly inadvisable in an area riddled with mine shafts and post open cast mining infill.

There is clearly a public safety risk and a massive overspending of taxpayers' money on unexpected safety issues such as shoring up.

These are issues which would not arise if the money was spent on Cinderford itself. Dean Forest Voice strongly believes that resources instead need to be focused on Cinderford town and its existing industrial areas.

Diverting investment to a satellite development further away will be to the detriment of Cinderford town, now and in the future.

Forest of Dean District Council has just established a new Cinderford Regeneration Environmental Forum (CREF) sponsored by The Homes and Communities Agency. It is likely CREF will be directed to put a positive spin on building on rare wildlife sites.

Natural England is in no position to protect Cinderford Northern Quarter.Similarly, professional environmentalists and supporters of biodiversity offsetting claim they could see hundreds of millions of pounds spent on environmental projects every year and even help to protect wildlife. Well no change there then!

– Phil Saunders, Dean Forest Voice.