Political Games

It would seem Mark Harpers office tricks campaign has once again gone into overdrive, for in their latest leaflet put out for theirTory County Council Candidate,( In Touch with Cinderford) is clearly aimed at the June County Elections.

Now I do not normally comment on opposition leaflets, but when they are as contradictory as this latest offering,Then I feel it is worthy of Comment, if only to tell a few home Truths.

(Labour and LibDems want you to pay for pension), they proclaimed, yet what these Forest Tories quite conveniently do not tell the electors is that this pension scheme has already existed for many years.

We suggested that full time Councillors that are Cabinet members and have no other occupation should be allowed to join this scheme, a dozen people at best from County Council.

When we probed deeper we found that some Conservative Councillors on the Forest of Dean District Council were already members of this pension scheme that is run by the County Council.

What you might call dont do has we do, but do as we tell you, it would seem in this case yet again Forest Tories arrogance knows no bounds.

Car Parking Charges in Forest of Dean

The Conservative year on the Forest of Dean District Council has bee a complete disaster.
They introduced charges that result in major increases in burial costs, they also introduced a charge that now mean people have to fork out some £15 for the collection of bulk waste items, which in turn bring,s the inevitable fly tipping to our beautiful Woodland, they also are in the process of bringing in charges for car parking against the wishes of their back bench Councillors, it is no wonder that many in the Conservative ranks have either joined or are in the process of joining the Independant Group of Councillors on the Forest of Dean district Council.
In summary!( what a shambles) and they accuse Labour of stealth Taxation.

New Cinderford Store

Tesco have registered a new planning application to build a new store on the Cinderford Rugby Club site at Dockham Road.
While some argue that will spell disaster for our town, it is interesting that some 83% of Cinderford People consulted told Tesco they supported their proposals.
It is said some 250 Jobs will be created along side 367 new parking spaces.
The big question for Councillors how could we object knowing so many people wanted the development, and we could not use planning law to object on the grounds of competition alone.
No doubt there will be job losses in small shops and a major blow to the existing Co-op County Foodstore all of which nobody wants to see happen.
Having said all of this we need healthy competion and the new Rugby facilities that Tesco will bring.
It is very interesting that our very vocal MP Mark Harper is very much silent on this issue, a classic sitting on the fence one might say.

Tories support cuts to services at Colliers Court

The Tories are managing to say yes and no at the same time. Officially the Conservative Cabinet are fully in support of cutting older people’s mental health services from Colliers Court in Cinderford. Your Tory County Council are saying yes to centralising services in Charlton Lane Mental Health Centre in Cheltenham.

The Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, chaired by a Conservative, have quite rightly referred the proposals to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt. With the full support of Labour, that committee is saying no to the cutting of services from Colliers Court.

Travelling from the Forest to Cheltenham for treatment is going to have a negative impact on older people’s health. Cutting staffing in the Forest is going to have a negative impact older people’s health. Centralising services in a building in Cheltenham which is in the middle of a major refurbishment just can’t be a good plan.

When it comes to older people’s mental health it’s the Tories in Shire Hall who write the strategy, it’s the Tories in Shire Hall who have the influence, but the Tories in Shire Hall are backing a single County site in Cheltenham. I am greatly saddened that even though some Conservatives have come out loudly against the proposals, others have weakened our case to Patricia Hewitt. It is a terrible loss to our save our services campaign that we don’t have the Tory Cabinet’s support for Colliers Court.

Graham Morgan

Letter to the paper 16th November

I Would like to respond to a couple of letters in your columns last week. Firstly with regard to the French market: expensive it may be but extremely popular!I have not seen so many people in Cinderford on a Saturday afternoon for donkey's years, and I have never seen a queue all day long as far up as the telephone box from the HSBC auto bank.

With regard to Saturday being the busiest shopping day, most people I know do their shopping on a Friday and reserve Saturday for sport.

Cinderford town council like Ross-on-Wye did not contact the French market - it contacted them. I have not heard the same level of criticism heaped upon Ross town council who also had to close their roads off.

All the councillors on Cinderford Town Council have ever tried to do is make our town as good as anyone else's. In Coleford, traders there with volunteers provide the town's Christmas lights; in the past in Cinderford it has been left to the town council.

Now, and it is very much appreciated, our traders' association is working with us, and so are the Forest Fitness Centre at Heywood and we will be the envy of the district at Christmas.

With regard to any decline which I believe is firmly behind us, this was mainly due to major factory closures.

All this resulted in a position in 1995 where we had 31 boarded-up shop fronts. I believe we have come a very long way from those miserable days, and in fact we should all take two steps back and take stock at what just has been achieved.

This year the town council together with our Cinderford Traders' Association produced the best flowers in the Forest.

Cinderford Traders' Association could be supported a lot more, especially by those who sit back and criticise! If these people joined forces, just think what could be achieved.

With regard to road closures, we face another dilemma in the coming weeks. Do we close Market Street and have a Christmas Parade or not? I pose this question; I believe it would be an eternal shame if we did not go ahead and have our parade. Not to do so would be taking away pleasure and joy from some 400 children in this town and a slight on the organisations that work so hard to produce this event.

The problem we face with any event in Cinderford Triangle is the safety of people. If we had two-way traffic flows up and down in front of the HSBC bank or some other traffic regime, we could then pedestrianise that area from the War Memorial across to Woolworths and in turn stop the need for any road closure in the rest of Market Street. Until this is done we are snookered.

The second letter mentioned public toilets and I agree that Heywood Road toilet should not be closed at 3pm. I find this odd; these toilets are cleaned twice a day and once on Saturday morning.

To clean Heywood Road and other town centre toilets across the district twice, seven days per week would cost in the region of £22,000 per year. To clean all toilets across the district twice seven days per week would cost £46,000 per year. It would be nice to know just how many people wanted to spend this sort of money; as with everything, these things come at a cost.

The same thing applies to road surfacing. I have asked many times for Woodside Avenue, Victoria Street and pavements in Parragate Road to be resurfaced and, let's be fair, the now Conservative-controlled county council made roads the main priority for spending public money. I will ask for these roads to be resurfaced yet again.

Graham Morgan

Safety Hazzard at Denecroft

We have been having major problems at Upper Bilson Road and Ashdean with very large lorries reversing into this road and the local car park.
Local People have had cars and boundary fences damaged, curb stones and bollards have been hit.
The worry is that a child playing will be seriously injured or killed before something is done about the situation,we are asking for a meeting with highways police and the store company with a view to get somthing done before its too late.

Cinderford Flowers

I am sure you will all agree with me that Cinderford Town Centre looks really great this year,a very worth while project with Cinderford Town Council working hand in hand with Cinderford Traders Association to create a stunning display of flowers in the Town Centre.
Who knows maybe an award for,"Town in Bloom",and why not!