I REFER to the recently published Corporate Plan of the Forest of Dean District Council, specifically the Capital Spend Programme.

Why, oh why are we yet again at Forest of Dean District Council proposing to put the majority of what capital spend is at our disposal into land, bricks and mortar in Cinderford?

The proposed capital plan for 2003/4 has £500k for employment land in Cinderford and in 2004/5 £600k for workspace and a factory extension, both in Cinderford.

These two sums increase Forest of Dean District Council headline spend on Economic Development over the two years by 77 per cent, but in the wrong way in my opinion. To enable this headline increase to be achieved we are, by the way, reducing our capital spending (compared to the sum of the 2001/2 and 2002/3 spends) by 67 per cent in town centre development, by 42 per cent in community development, by 47 per cent in environmental projects and by 71 per cent in estate management.

Where do these reductions sit in conjunction with the rhetoric contained in the plan?

In total of the £4.09m proposed to be raised and spent in the period,some £1.909m (47 per cent) is to be spent in Cinderford.

I have nothing against supporting Cinderford in principle, but one has to question this priority in the interests of all of the people of the district. Indeed I am actively advising (for free) the Forest Fitness Centre in Cinderford, who are at the second stage of a Sport England Lottery bid for a £500,000 investment in a new facility.

The current administration is fiddling while Rome burns!

The new Corporate Plan for 2002-5 shows that between 2001/2 and 2004/5 Forest of Dean District Council is proposing to raise and spend over £1.4m on economic development, of which £1.25m will have been spent in Cinderford on land and factories.

Oh, and as an aside of the total proposed spend on business grants over the period is the princely sum of £68,400! Is this equitable for the rest of the Forest? Why not let private money decide when and where factories are built? How much broadband infrastructure could be leveraged in with this money? How many businesses would have then been able to expand or be attracted to the Forest? We do not need to spend money on owning parts of industrial estates and factories – times have moved on!

If the May elections deliver any significant increase in Conservative councillors, redressing the present excessive political and ideological imbalance, we intend to put council taxpayers money where it can do the most for the most people in the Forest, and that means properly providing an environment where businesses can thrive, but through proper strategic analysis and considered long term investment. In the current economy, broadband infrastructure has to be at the top of anyone's list. Why not that of the Forest of Dean District Council ?

I believe that the sustainable economic prosperity of the people in this district can only be founded on a strong business environment. The Forest of Dean District Council must consider with more vision how its resources can best be deployed in pursuit of this environment. Only when this foundation is truly laid will we generate the local wealth to deliver the quality and quantity of support services the less well off segments of our local population deserve.

We cannot and should not be subservient to the nannying grant-infested state that wields such uninformed power over us at present, with businesses and council alike acting like vassals in some neo-feudal system, bidding for funds on bended knee to unelected and unaccountable quangos. We have to build an economic future as best we can, based on our skills, resources and capabilities, that is as independent as possible of our present, Government inspired, parasitic culture. Of course this cannot happen overnight, and we have to work within the system as it exists, and that will mean bidding to these agencies for assistance – but we must do so with focus, commitment and gusto in support of this vision.

Whilst this may not constitute a publishable letter, I would ask that in the interests of all of the people of the district, you stand back and take a strategic view of the way the rhetoric of the current district, county and regional administration is matched by their actions, as shown by where the money goes.

As a small business owner helping small medium enterprises in business improvement through the use of technology, as a district councillor, councillor e-champion, Federation of Small Business local board member, Trustee of the Forest Fitness Centre and shadow board member of the Lydney Area in Partnership, I see and hear the needs of businesses at first hand.

I am also one of the 87 per cent of rural businesses in Gloucestershire employing less than 10 people (Gloucestershire First Strategy Document 2002) who could possible become more successful with access to broadband communications. – Stephen McMillan, district councillor, Newnham on Severn.