I would like to respond to Councillor Graham Morgan's recent letter and to some of the points he made.

My original report was made without "fear or favour" to the the Senior Verderer and his Court, a copy of which was given, not by myself, to the Forest Review.

Certainly I have no objection to my report being published and was very gratified to receive so many favourable comments for giving relevant details which could affect the site at Steam Mills.

It would appear that I may have confused the areas somewhat, I assumed that "Northern Arc" referred to the area worked by Northern United Colliery, I was unaware of the re-christening.

I don't think much can be argued on what Graham has said regarding any conflict between the west of our area and Cinderford but with the greatest of respect may I suggest that his comments could have ignited the situation in the first place. Just look at what was said when my report was published. I did not produce a report at the request of opponents to the proposed scheme. The "Keep off Steam Mills" statement is sadly out of place when we are talking of a Forest College.

Councillor Morgan states that a detail report was commissioned by the District Council for this site, I assume that this is the "Cinderford Northern Quarter, Mining Legacy Assessment". Dated August 2009.

I now have a copy of this document, which is some four written pages in extent, bolstered by around twenty pages of mining documents/drawings which have little purpose to the site in question, many of which are way outside the area anyway.

The first half of this report would have been covered by John Belcher forty years ago in his teaching to local students. Much of the central part is opinions not fact and it is only the last part which makes a valid point, and I quote:

Much of the site is covered with loose-compacted material to depths of up to 30m.Ground investigations will be needed to determine the extent of fill and its condition. Foundation designs for new buildings may need deep piles or ground improvement techniques (such as installation of vibro stone columns) to deal with ground conditions. Drains would need to be laid steeper than normal falls to compensate for future ground movement.

Settlement from old mine workings is not anticipated. The information now obtained on the effect of mining needs to be compiled into a report on this matter, which would also need to be endorsed by the Deputy Gaveller in his role as custodian of records and information on past mining.

The location of all former mine shafts in the areas to be developed need to be determined, initially from record plans, old maps and aerial photographs. Physical and geophysical investigation

Techniques will then need to be used to determine if any remaining voids exist. Any such voids will need to be filled prior to any building construction in the vicinity.

There are so many old shaft locations on site, so a a strategy of trying to avoid building near a shaft locations does not appear to be practical here. The north-east part of the site, near Steam Mills Road, may also have remains of early shallow bell-pit workings and the whole of this area will need careful investigation to avoid voids.

August 2009 is certainly "Old Hat" and the entire scheme, based on this report should have been shelved at that time.

With shafts being sunk to over 200 feet in depth at Steam Mills there is no possibility that the 100 foot depth of opencast mining could have obliterated all these old workings and many part shafts and also coal workings would have been covered up, probably without records being made. Of course Northern United workings are some 1000 feet below the surface at Nofolds Green and would not have been affected by opencast workings

Thanks to the efforts of Maurice Bent I have been able to obtain a copy of Northern United Abandonment Plans. These plans bring up other concerns which I had originally missed, particularly the area where the new development is proposed, the surface area is marked as an "Area of Unconsolidated Strata where when Wet is Liable to Flow". While not in any way the same situation as the Aberfan tragedy in 1966 it has similar soil conditions. The opencast would have mixed the materials when the site was reclaimed but I am unsure whether this is for the better or not.

I'll bet, Graham, that you did not think when working your 150 ton presses at Ranks that you were being cushioned by an 1000 foot head of water from Northern United, not to mention the possibility of a similar cushion of water from the Upper series of the coalfield, but you have a greater knowledge of these old pits and their water content than I have.

Water is still discharging at the same velocity from Old Norchard as it did forty years ago and the water is at the same level in Northern shaft so this puts paid to the suggestion that all the voids would fill up.

As I said in my report to the Senior Verderer, and I repeat it again, as long as the water level does not reduce there is little likelihood of problems, but the loss of approaching 1000 feet of water pressure is alarming without knowing what the end result could possibly be.

– Paul Morgan.