A THRIVING centre for business and education on the former Northern United colliery site would make the Northern Quarter project a fitting tribute to the miners of the Forest, say key supporters of the scheme.

The project – a partnership between the Forest Council, the Cinderford Regeneration Board and the Homes and Community Agency – is part of a £100 million investment package in the project but has proved controversial.

Council leader Councillor Patrick Molyneux told the Review: "This is an opportunity for the district. It is deliverable and sustainable.

"A thriving business district with a state-of-the-art college on that site would be a true monument to the miners of the Forest.

"Suggesting that preserving dilapidated buildings on the site is the way to remember the miners is misguided.

"Doing nothing or pickling it is not the way forward. Foresters have never sat back and done nothing – they have always looked for opportunities to better themselves and the area."

He said relocating Gloucestershire College's Forest campus from Five Acres was a key part of the project.

"Students have been attracted to Gloucester and Cheltenham by the facilities and that is what we will have here, a state-of-the-art college in the heart of the Forest."

Chair of the Cinderford Regeneration Board, Councillor Graham Morgan, said the Northern Quarter would attract badly-needed jobs to the Forest.

He said: "We have a population of young people with no hope but this scheme will give them a future.

"If you talk to the old miners they will tell you they want the Northern Quarter because they want something for the young people of this area.

"We've got 50 per cent of people in the district driving long distances to work which isn't sustainable. We need to bring employment into the Forest."

He also rejected objections to the scheme on the basis it is in the Statutory Forest.

"People go on about the Statutory Forest but two thirds of the town of Cinderford is built within the Statutory Forest."

Councillor Morgan welcome other regeneration projects including plans to build 92 affordable homes on the site of the former Ensors abattoir site in Valley Road.

He said: "Ensors has moved to Forest Vale which is good for the people who live near the old site."

Consultation is now underway on the revised masterplan for Cinderford with the major change being a revised route for the link road that will open up the Northern Quarter.

The changes were made following concerns about the impact on bat colonies.

Jay Lambe, the Homes and Communities Agency's area manager, said: "There has been very thorough consultation on the project.

She said: "We are working with our partners to facilitate the vision and ambition for Cinderford."

Councillor Molyneux said: "We want to be led by the people of the Forest. If there is an overwhelming response we will have to take it on board."

The HCA says it has worked on many regeneration schemes in former mining areas.