I thought it was high time that, as chair of Cinderford Town Council, I put pen to paper and dispelled some of the misconception that at this point in time seem to be reverberating around this Forest from a good many quarters.

Firstly no-one from Cinderford Town Council has ever asked for the Gloucestershire College to be located in our town. With regard to any rift between Coleford/Berry Hill and Cinderford, I can say here and now this does not exist and never will as far as Cinderford is concerned.

I have a great many close and dear friends in Berry Hill and may I say I wish them well in their efforts to retain the college in that area. However that fight is not Cinderford's fight, it is a matter between that community and the governors of the Gloucestershire College.

However at the end of the day if the Gloucestershire college governing board decides to relocate to Cinderford, I can tell you the same will happen now as it did when the Forest of Dean college decided to move from Cinderford to Five Acres.

Back then no West Dean councillor stood up and said 'No we do not want this college' and not one Cinderford councillor would have expected them to. Today do not expect anything different from us over here in Cinderford.

Fight your fight! Cinderford will not stand in your way. Your talks should be with Gloucestershire College and, likewise, Cinderford North­­ern Quarter should be no part of your battle plan. Steam Mills is not your area to worry about, and West Dean ends at Mireystock crossroads.

Now to the report from Paul Morgan, a man for whom I have the utmost respect and very high regard. Paul suggests the water table may lower in the forest and this may well happen. If it does I suggest we will have a great deal more than Cinderford Northern Quarter to worry about across this forest.

Taking Cinderford for example, it is far too late in the day to worry about this sort of subsidence, for not only is Forest Vale built over the heavily mined areas of Prospect, Great Bilson and Crumpmeadow collieries, the town itself is also heavily undermined by Tormentor, Parragate, Barleycorn pits and, of course, Eastern United Colliery in Ruspidge.

My own father and grandfather used to leave home from the Furnaces Victoria Street, Cinderford, walk down to Eastern United at Ruspidge, then walk back underground to work at the coal face up under the Forge Hammer bank in Victoria Street, Cinderford.

With regard to some of the pits that Paul mentions, Georges Folly lies under the garage in Steam Mills Road, Cinderford, (where we are going to build a new Asda Store). Likewise Regulator Nos 1, 2 and 3 pits they are under the floor of the Temco factory.

In this same factory I worked for Xerox Cinderford where we had a press shop built over those three shafts, 150 ton presses pounding away day and night for 10 years. Renford Pierce was one of the setters who, I believed, Paul worked with at Waterloo Colliery.

The Duck Colliery shaft has had subsidence recently near the old entrance to St John's Cricket Ground at Whimsey. This is next to the Temco Factory and is not in the Northern Quarter and is surrounded by factory development already.

Nearer than the geological fault at Staple Edge is the Crump Meadow fault a 'downthrow' of up to 50 feet that ran through Crumpmeadow Colliery. Because of this fault none of the Brazilly seam had been worked to the south of it by Crumpmeadow. No doubt this same fault runs into Forest Vale and Cinderford.

Water has long been known about in the Cinderford valley even when Northern was just a twinkle in the eye of the Crawshay Company. At the Fire Engine Colliery, Steam Mills, 25,000 gallons per hour was being pumped to protect Crumpmeadow Colliery, which itself was pumping 30,000 gallons per hour. When Crumpmeadow closed the water rose to 63 feet in the shaft.

All these factors are known about and have never presented any really serious problems. Modern buildings are rafted and mining conditions are always taken full account of with close co-operation of the Coal Authority on all aspects.

To use this as an excuse not to develop the last tiny bit of industrial land is wrong. We need to give future generations of Foresters a chance of local jobs. This is essential. The alternative is young Foresters having to move out, with the end result of no more industrial Forest people! Is this the legacy we really want to leave?

We have the very same soundings from those concerned about wildlife. In this last month I, along with my son, carried containers of pond water to save tadpoles that were dying in ditches at Crabtree Hill. We are not people who do not care about wildlife, in fact we care very much. Philip Morgan's pictures are for all to see in Cinderford's White Hart Inn.

By working together there should be no conflict. I always say I have been involved in the development of Cinderford since 1983. In this time we have developed Forest Vale Industrial Estate alongside the Linear Park.?We have tried to balance jobs creation with wildlife protection. I always ask the question: 'If we have done such a bad job as some would suggest, then why is all this wildlife still here to protect?' Someone answer this point!

– Graham Morgan, chair, Cinderford Town Council.