MADAM,
As you may know, the next meeting of the Joint Advisory Committee (JAC) of the Wye Valley AONB is scheduled for 2pm on March 12th at the Dean District Council Offices in Coleford.
This is likely to be an important meeting for the Cycleway Project, as a Community Impact Study is to be discussed. JAC meetings are open to the public as observers, and so anyone can come and listen to the proceedings.
The Community Impact Study was submitted to the JAC last November. It has created something of a hiatus, and has been variously described as shallow and unrealist. My own observation is that it is a desk study based on data from other cycleway projects.
It therefore has no relevance to community impacts in the Wye Valley, and can only be described as a "comfort" report to quieten the concerns of our elected JAC representatives, who will vote on our behalf.
Could it be that attempts are being made to manipulate the JAC? This is not a frivolous question, as the JAC is also being given the impression that landowner negotiations are currently going on, yet it is common knowledge that the land is not available!! On what basis then is the Cycleway Project proceeding, perhaps, all will be revealed on March 12th?
Peter Lewis
Rose Cottage,
Llandogo