THE FOREST of Dean  District Council, the Forestry Commission and the Homes and Community Agency are working to transfer land for urban private development from the public forest estate in our Statutory Forest, the Forest of Dean, contrary to Hansard records stating that public land will not be transferred.

Yet these bodies are working to remove the public status of the Northern Quarter and have already fenced it off  without defined and delineated notices as required within the statutory and public and ancient forest around the Steam Mills Lakes area.

Furthermore, the Forest of Dean District Council is actively facilitating a written request from the Homes and Communities Agency – reference letter from David Warburton, Head of Area for the agency – and together with the district council, have initiated police and disciplinary investigations concerning myself whose district council ward is the Northern Quarter.

Is this perhaps because I make regular visits to the Northern Quarter and observe the Home and Communities Agency's ground investigations?

Perhaps it is because I recorded photographic evidence resulting from   pressure blowbacks from an area underground in close proximity to the opencast landfill in the Northern Quarter area from which gas emissions of methane and carbon dioxide have been reported by the council's scientific officer?

Forgive me, but I feel it is my duty to bring these potentially lethal observations into the open.

It would be unforgivable to neglect my duty in relationship to the similar prevailing conditions that resulted in the landfill Chertsey tragedy which led to the death of a seven-year-old-boy.

The truth must not be hidden. I am not content to negate my duties by simply believing what we are told about the safety issues of building in the Northern Quarter area. To simply 'leave it to the experts' as stated by Graham Morgan, is not always the correct path to take as history has taught us. 

My own preference is to conduct my elected and lawful duty as best I can. At times, this has become a lonely path and one that other councillors would prefer me not to follow. Ministerial statements must be set against the background of the 'truth and nothing but the truth' and an integrity of intent to honour the whole statement.

This begs the question of who is stating the truth? Cinderford Northern Quarter is being transferred – parcelled up for sale – thereby rendering all the promises and statements flowing out of the Houses of Lords and Commons as false, shallow and contemptible.

– Cllr Andrew Gardiner (Ind), Forest of Dean District Council, Lydbrook and Ruardean.