ONCE a month on a Tuesday afternoon, the Forest of Dean District Council planning committee meets to discuss how best to wreck the Forest.  That is not their intention, of course, it is just that they do not know any better.  They have even granted planning permission for unsightly housing to be constructed on the skyline, ruining the view for miles around.  

They should be recognizing the Forest as an excellent place in which to live and work, encouraging tourists to visit and pressing for the Forest to be granted AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) status.  But the committee appears to have no policy, no imagination, no love of the Forest, no ideas on preserving the Forest for future generations and no clue about how best to serve the interests of the people living here.

Some years ago I wrote a letter to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott complaining about a government planning inspector who had approved some planning outrage contrary to the wishes of the local people who had been adversely affected by it.  

I asked him if he had ever heard of democracy.  Apparently he hadn't.  He wrote back stating "planning decisions were not subject to the wishes of local people, nor should they be."

UKIP knows better. Vote UKIP locally and the council will not tolerate unsuitable development. 

Vote UKIP nationally and there won't be any interfering government inspectors because planning decisions will be made locally.

Preserving the Forest safely in our hands, defending the countryside against unscrupulous developers, enabling the people to make planning decisions by referendum, and blaming the other political parties for their everlasting incompetence, are all hallmarks of the quality of UKIP.  That is why UKIP are winning this election.

– Anthony Reeve, Littledean.