Last Thursday's Cabinet meeting at Forest of Dean District Council was the scene of an unusual event when several young(ish) people came to support Andrew Gardiner in his role of Forest Champion.

Because they had arrived late for the meeting they were unable to gain access for the start and Patrick Molyneux, Leader of the council, apologised and was most tolerant of their presence and subsequent remarks. They did not appreciate, apparently, that meetings of the council are intended to conduct the business of the council in a civilised manner and their subsequent questions and comments indicated a naïve lack of understanding of the powers of the council.

These young people appear to live rough in the Forest by choice, championing 'green' living and such movements as organic food production. That is their right. We live in a free society and, if they wish to opt out of that society they can do so.

What they should bear in mind, however, is that they are only able to live in this way because the more civilised evolved society is there for them to step back into whenever they wish, for example when they need to use the services of the NHS, which is funded by all of us within that society. They were educated at society's expense but now wish to oppose everything the State stands for and provides, particularly, it seems, our political system. The district council is not the arena in which to attempt this; it does not have the power to change that system.

By the end of the meeting it became apparent, in my opinion, that their true aim was disruption. While one young man took a photograph of Andrew Gardiner, using, although the irony is probably lost on him, a state of the art mobile phone camera that had been devised and manufactured by the society he despises, one of his friends slipped out of the door and set off the fire alarm, thus triggering a series of events.

When the fire alarm sounds evacuation of the building is mandatory and councillors and members of the public eventually gathered outside in front of the council offices where the four 'eco-warriors' posed for a photograph, obviously very pleased with themselves. A fire engine then drove into the car-park, manned by firemen, summoned and attired to fight a fire. How pleased these rebels must have been to see this, a manifestation of every child's dream! No matter that these firemen had been called out unnecessarily, that there could have been a real emergency elsewhere and that there is a cost involved. That is for someone else to worry about. That there has to be an organised society for there to be a fire service at all does not appear to have occurred to them.

It is likely that at the beginning of the meeting there had been some sympathy among elected members for Andrew Gardiner as Forest Champion. That will now have evaporated as these young people, treated very politely by the Leader, repaid his courtesy in such an outrageous way. Their credibility, and that of their cause, has been shot to pieces by one childish, irresponsible, stage-managed act. At the very least they should bear the cost of the fire-engine call-out and perhaps learn the lesson that rebellious actions have repercussions. What did they achieve? Nothing.

– Daphne Pearson (Dr), Tinman's Green, Redbrook.