ONCE again our health walk on Tuesday came to a slithering halt much in the same way as the recent miners’ memorial walk across the historic tramway.

In 1974 and 1994, millions of pounds of our funds were invested in landscaping the Northern Quarter area into a wildlife paradise and to preserve the unique Forest of Dean tramway that once served three deep collieries and a cluster of 10 in the upper series, transporting iron, coal and clay to the kilns along the Severn.

Much of this local history is corroborated in a 70-page archaeological paper commissioned by the Forest of Dean Council. Now however, this paper remains forgotten – left to gather dust it seems.

If it were given to the Coal Authority, it would certainly bring a halt to the building developments that have been approved for the site.

Who on earth would approve the building of a college on a site that contains so many voids and old mine entries?

I continue to try to persuade the council’s Cabinet of the risks of the building site and to ask them to work with people like myself and, more importantly, with the few mine surveyors who have had real experience with these old mines and who have a full understanding of their dangers.

Concerning the causeway with its metalised thoroughfare along the lakeside,  a letter from the head of the Homes and Communities  Agency was sent to the residents of Steam Mills and Cinderford promising to remove the fences that block the right of way after a 10-week period from August 2014.

This was further endorsed by the senior management of the district council and the Forestry Commission when replying to my letters concerning the unfair way they continue to mislead the public with their insistence that gaps were to be left in the fencing to give public access.

However, apart from Cllr Graham Morgan, the chairman of the county council, nobody did anything apart from reneging on their written promises.

Graham has written that as far as he is concerned this fencing should be immediately realigned to return access to the public.

I doubt there is another authority in the land that would even contemplate constructing buildings over an area so riddled with old mine shafts.

Do the college authorities and governors know that planning permission was obtained irrespective of old mines being identified by borehole ground investigations and planners’ own archaeological survey?

I am not aware that the college has been informed, although it is inconceivable that they would risk everything without first understanding the mandatory requirements of the Coal Authority with regards to mine entries.

Finally, while I cannot speak for Dean Forest Voice, they seek regeneration and the finest education facilities here in the Forest.

However while they (DFV) alone strive to deliver these aspects in an appropriate and safe environment, they are ignored by people who know so little about the dangerous reality of old mines.

If only the Forest of Dean Council would listen to them instead of

promoting their own dangerous concept which is totally void of infrastructure and common sense.

– Cllr Andrew Gardiner, (Ind), Forest of Dean District Council, Lydbrook and Ruardean.