A WEEK or so ago, I went down to the centre of Coleford to find the town paralysed by yet another power failure. Living in Coalway, as I do, I can sympathise readily, as for the past ten years, to my own knowledge, we have suffered ourselves from failures, reduced power levels and poor reception.
Coalway has also had to bear loss of water supply at inconvenient moments, fluctuating pressure and semi-sewage issuing from our taps. Far from giving value for money , these monstrous service companies are the epitome of 'rip-off' Britain.
Being demonstrably unable to cope with the present day supply level, they are expected to service another 2,500 new homes, according to Brian Morgan of our ludicrous planning department. Not that they will object to this requirement: they see it as an opportunity to extort money from more households for their already haphazard services.
Surely one might query whether these 2,500 homes are really necessary. Are there 2,500 Foresters who are homeless?
No, this is merely our lickspittle council's effort to comply with the dictates of the incompetent and utterly discredited New Labour apology of a government, which is hell-bent on creating a vast urban sprawl from the English Channel to Hadrian's Wall, and on utterly destroying the countryside with its rural way of life. The Forest of Dean is intended as another commuter belt.
Countrywide, there are 750,000 empty houses, a large majority of which are in urban areas where all service lines are established. There is little need for any new estates of 'little boxes' at all, least of all in areas of outstanding nature nearby.
The other branch of Brian Morgan's boast is the creation of 3,000 new jobs. Where?
The Forest would need some heavy labour-intensive industry, but these firms would never be interested in the Forest which, in this context, already has a severe logistical problem. The road system is already over-burdened, and the roads themselves degenerating to wartime standards due to council inefficiency.
Indeed, now that the warm, sunny weather has arrived at last, crude wartime repairs with tar and lashings of chippings are being carried out, which, as exemplified all over the Forest, are short-term remedies if that. Added to the poor service levels and the decrepit road system must be added the impractability of alternatives.
I believe that Brian Morgan is merely the mouthpiece for more idiotic New Labour claptrap, and his draft plan for the district is more apposite without the 'r'. As for the 'golden decade' it will be more a case of King Midas in reverse. – Cy Roberts, Forsdene Walk, Coleford.