GRAHAM Morgan, chairman of Cinderford's Regeneration Board, has dismissed as "outdated old hat" a mining surveyor's report that the town's Northern Quarter development is to be built on "just about the worst site that could have been selected."

The criticism and warnings about building in the Steam Mills area are contained in a report produced by former Home Office mine surveyor Mr Paul Morgan, of Coleford, and written for the Forest of Dean Verderers.

If accepted, the report has the potential to completely derail the entire project.

The report fears subsidence if at any stage in the future the Forest's water table was to change.

The report says: "The area in question is undermined by workings, dipping at gradients of 1 in 2 to 1 in 4 from Northern United Colliery and any development in the Steam Mills area would be sitting on an hydraulic water cushion of anything from two to 10 feet or even more. While the water remains, there is probably no problem, but any changes could have catastrophic results."

Mr Morgan, the last resident surveyor at Northern United where he worked from the early 1950s until he finished working for The National Coal Board in 1964, also writes: "The area around Steam Mills has probably more recorded shafts than anywhere else in the Forest and that is not to mention the number of shafts and their workings which have not been recorded. To add to these problems there could be many "bell shafts" put down, particularly during the 1921 and 1926 strike period, which again would not have been recorded.

"Only recently, and quite close to the development site, Duck Pit collapsed. Surely this must be a warning shot as to what problems could be experienced in the future, not only the added cost implication but the potential danger to the site."

Mr Morgan contends that the site is "a very vulnerable area" and "possibly not" the location to site a college "where six or seven hundred young people could be gathered at any one time, or even an hotel for that matter."

Cllr Graham Morgan, a son of a Forest miner with a keen interest in the Forest's mining heritage, says the report refers to a completely different area to the Northern Quarter.

The whole area to be developed was, he said, a previous opencast site known as Nofold Green. It had been excavated in 1968 to a depth of as much as 100 feet, totally obliterating old workings and shafts.

"There is not a trace of them now. The shallow coal seams have long gone and the shafts taken out.

"We are talking of different areas. Detailed studies and surveys have been carried out and the experts can see no problems."

Opponents, he said, were clutching at straws.

•Read Mr Morgan's full report in features section.