COLEFORD'S death received a stay of execution last month when the potential disaster of an 'out of town centre' Aldi store was put on hold by the district council's planning committee to give the developer more time.

I saw the embodiment of all the frustration regarding the Co-op monopoly which has built up in recent years both here and in Cinderford.

There was a great deal of emotion coming from the vociferous, cheering and clapping public gallery.

My initial amusement changed to dismay and annoyance at the attempt at undue influence on what should have been a rational and logical planning consideration.

The meeting began logically with a member of the committee saying that their decision making was easy when applications were clearly against planning policy and the first application was refused quickly on that basis.

But then the Aldi application came forward and despite it being stated that it failed on at least two important policies, the committee all wanted to pass it.

They had decided that the strong, but uninformed, representations from local councillors and residents negated the 'well-known' evidence of damage to town centres.

This was also in spite of both Aldi and the council agreeing that town centre trade would be affected by this store on this site.

There is enough evidence of town centre damage, both from central government investigations of the 1990s and recent government advisors such as Mary Portas and CABE (the government's architectural consultants), to make this a clear-cut refusal issue.

A member even made the ill-conceived, thought-less comment that Coleford town centre had been going downhill long before Aldi came along.

As if this could excuse the committee from causing further damage to our town.

With such an irrational performance it is difficult not to be disrespectful to councillors who, I appreciate, have devoted themselves to the service of the community.

But this is not serving the community as a whole but pandering to the vocal few, the majority of who live in Tufthorn Avenue and High Nash and would who gain the most from this development.

I have to ask why our planning committee is resolved to act in such an emotional but uninformed way.

I hope the new planning committee will take a more rational approach to the protection of our towns and environment.

Finally, while it is difficult to condemn residents who take any interest in their locality, with the advent of the Coleford Neighbourhood Development Plan, it is a pity that more residents are not being more interested, informed, involved and concerned about the town in which they choose to live.

– Walt Williams, Coleford.