"DURING the earlier economic downturn of the 1980s, we were able to proceed with the laying out of the Forst Vale estate at Cinderford, which is now flourishing," says Forest district council head of Regeneration Services, Owen James.

"Today, when we are facing a similar loss of jobs, we need people like the Regional Development Agency to be helping us with new plans along the same lines, The problem is that the South West RDA based at Bristol and Exeter tends to concentrate on Devon and Cornwall where it can get matching European money.

"They tend to see Gloucestershire as an area of prosperity, so the little old Forest of Dean doesn't get a look-in.

"We have unemployment at the national average level, but that conceals the true picture. With one third of our jobs in manufacturing, a sector which is decline across the board, it is not a very good position to be in.

"It's no use saying we've got an unbalanced employment structure, and we need to do something about it now. I fear you have to have the headline figures of high unemployment before they take any notice.

"The loss of jobs at Xerox is especially serious because it's a reliately good payer – average wages being over £21 per annum. If we don't intervene in trying to reshape the local economy, this area could becomed a dormitory district for the rest of Gloucestershire – with pockets of deprivation for those employed locally in less well paid jobs.

"We've put the package of regeneration proposals to the powers that be, but we have to convince them of the urgency of what we're talking about. Because, clearly things are not looking good.

"The assistance central government is putting our way tends to be based on the idea we are a predominantly rural economy, which we aren't. So they are talking of giving money through programmes such as Leader+, which is welcome but won't scratch the surface.

"The RDA is giving us £1 million through the SRB6 budget for the Young People Support scheme, but that is not going to assist manufacturing.

"We are also, yes, getting money under the Coalfields Regeneration heading - but only the Northern United site has serious potential. If we had known how far they were going to restrict funding to specific sites, maybe we wouldn't have chosen to go down that route.

"If we were able to divert money away from sites which have limited possibilities, we could put it into North Cinderford. But we're not allowed to.

"We have £850,000 of our own money which we are prepared to be into developing the infrastructure of land around Steam Mills, which is a pretty significant sum for a small authority. But without help from elsewhere, we are not going to get very far.

"There are still companies with expansion plans, despite the unfavourable trading conditions. We are able, in the right conditions, to meet the supply side requirements - things like serviced land, new industrial units, new roads and training schemes - which also help existing businesses.

"On the demand side, we also need to promote the area to inward investors. In order for this to happen, we require a level playing field - or everything's going down the road to South Wales.

"When we suffered the last lot of Xerox losses, we tried for European funding under the Objective 2 heading, but failed. When they changed the assisted areas designation, we again failed to get our case heard.

"The RDA has the power to make a difference. At Dursley, for instance, they are helping to buy the extra land which Lister's say they require - and good luck to them. We need that kind of support here."