UK Conservative Govt. Suspends Some Of Plan To Sell Public Forests As Backlash Continues To Build

[hatrack]

The government is on the ropes over its plans to sell off England's forests. Nearly half a million people have now signed a petition against the plans and local groups are springing up around the country.

Last week I raised the issue of the sales in the House of Commons but I was told there was no turning back. A week is a long time in forestry politics. This Friday, the Tory-led government announced a stay of execution for the 15 per cent of forest land they were planning to put up for sale in April. This panic move is the latest embarrassment for the government.

The campaign does not stop there. The public bodies bill giving ministers the power to dispose of 100% of the public forest comes back to the House of Lords in a few weeks time. The prize sought is the removal of the forestry elements of the bill by the government.

The government is peddling a number of myths about the sell-off. First, that Labour was somehow involved in secret plot to dispose of England's forests. In Labour's thirteen years in government the Forestry Commission sold 9,500 hectares (23,465 acres) of land but also bought 5,400 hectares of new woods, mainly closer to urban areas to create new community woodlands. The last Conservative government sold 209,956 hectares of land (a total net loss of 180,000 hectares) in the sixteen after the 1981 Forestry Act was passed. This was before Labour had passed the 'right to roam', so there was no discussion of public rights of way back then. The land was simply sold for profit.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/11/forest-sell-off-faces-chop-public-backlash

[truebrit71]

1. Good, it was probably one of the dumbest ideas put forth by this group of luddites...

..

[xchrom]

2. +1