THE Cabinet decision to borrow £3.5 million from the Local Enterprise Partnership marks another step in the Forest of Dean District Council's descent into madness in pursuit of the Northern Quarter project.

The national regeneration money that initiated the plans in Cinderford was welcome but the concentration of resources in one place to support a project spiralling out of control and the risk-taking with local taxpayers' money by the council is foolhardy and unfair to the wider Forest.

The link road in Cinderford was considered with other county council highways projects for funding from the Gloucestershire Local Transport Board and was well down the list of priorities, as reported in the article. What it does not say is that a bid by Forest of Dean District Council to complete the highway strategy in Lydney was well above it.

The Lydney scheme was given greater priority because it addressed air quality issues, growing traffic chaos and would have delivered improved access to the station, sustainable transport and enhanced the town centre.

The district council had exactly the same opportunity to deliver the Lydney scheme through a loan as much of the cost could have been recovered from levies made on local developers leading the housing development.

The district council expects Lydney to deliver nearly 2,000 new homes to meet its housing target and there is no infrastructure to support that development.

The lack of school, road and community facilities to support Oakdale, the first phase of the Lydney development has demonstrated that investment in infrastructure needs to come first.

The objective measures applied by the experts at the LTB on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council prioritised Lydney over Cinderford.

The district council has ignored that advice. The loan from the LEP is a massive gamble for a vanity project and not the place with the most urgent need in the Forest of Dean. Cinderford needs investment but so does the rest of the Dean.

– Cllr Alan Preest, Lydney