A PARISH council is backing calls for a public inquiry into the future of the former Gloucestershire College site at Five Acres.

West Dean Parish Council clerk Dave Kent said they are fully behind the Forest of Dean Council’s move to launch a scrutiny committee investigation into the controversy, having waged a seven-year campaign to secure its future for the community.

Forest Council leader Cllr Tim Gwilliam has already fired off an email to new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, to appraise him of the situation over the site, which was due to be handed over to the local authority by Homes England for a nominal pound last year.

And he says he will contact him daily until he gets a reply regarding a final handover of the site, which also included a leisure centre and theatre before it closed last autumn.

“We’ve seen off two secretary of states since this started, so perhaps it will be third time lucky,” added the frustrated council leader.

West Dean Parish Council wrote to Robert Jenrick’s predecessor James Brokenshire last month to protest about the delay.

And Mr Kent says: “West Dean Parish Council fully supports the request for a public inquiry into the future of the former Gloucestershire College site.

“The future of this site was central to the community aspirations for the area and became central to the Neighbourhood Development Plan.

“The local community formed a highly effective and influential active group known as FANS (Five Acres Not for Sale), and working with the parish council within the framework of the NDP developed a plan to create on the site vacated by the college a modern cultural, tourist, recreational and sporting hub to revive this area, which is in need of economic regeneration.

“In the summer of 2018, a formal offer to dispose of part of the land to West Dean Parish Council and the other part to the Forest of Dean District Council for a nominal fee was made.

“And although Ho-mes England prevaricated for almost a year, West Dean gained ownership of the land earlier this year, and now some local sports clubs are happily using them.

“However, Homes England appear to have reneged on the other agreed land transaction, which was to transfer the remainder of the site to the Forest of Dean District Council, claiming that they did not believe their case was sufficiently ‘robust’.

“I am astonished that after all the encouragement given to the district and parish councils in pursuing our project, and the amount of time that Homes England had to prepare their case for the disposal of the land, they apparently failed to fulfil their promises through some sort of administrative failure.

“We have an angry community at Berry Hill, frustrated that after almost eight years of campaigning, the implementation of the NDP is no further forward.

“Through our letter to the Secretary of State, we are seeking to get some action to enable Homes England to honour their promise and dispose of the rest of the Five Acres site to the Forest of Dean District Council.”