MONMOUTH MP David Davies has welcomed the announcement by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that controversial plans to sell state-owned woodland in England have been abandoned.
The Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP told Parliament on Thursday that the current consultation on the future of the public forest estate has now closed and a new panel of experts will instead be set up to consider how the Government can better protect our woodlands for the future.
Speaking from his constituency office in Usk, Mr Davies said: “A lot of truly false rumours were being propagated by websites that forests including the Forest of Dean would be sold-off and turned into golf clubs and holiday homes. I always knew such statements were nonsense and I did my best to reassure constituents this was not the case.
“The Government was considering leasing, not selling, some of the forests currently used by the Forestry Commission to harvest timber and all access rights would have been guaranteed. Heritage woodland like the Forest of Dean could have been transferred to local charities but would not have been leased, let alone sold to private companies.
“Having said that, I had my own concerns which were not picked up by those opposed to the policy. Firstly, the Government was slow to inform people about the ins and outs of the forestry clauses of the Public Bodies Bill. Secondly, there were issues over liability. I wanted to know where liability would lie in the event of a landslip. In Tintern a few years ago there were serious landslips on land owned by Forestry Commission Wales. At the time, there were arguments over who was responsible. Eventually, Forestry Commission Wales put right the damage and spent a large sum of money on engineering works which will hopefully prevent a future landslip.
“My question is who would be liable in situations like this if forests are leased or given to charities. I wrote to the Minister seeking urgent clarification and am currently awaiting a response, but I assume after yesterday’s events that this is the end of the matter.
“I think it’s important to remember that the last Government sold a number of forests and in some cases, access was restricted. One of the more positive aspects of the Public Bodies Bill was that it would have stopped future sales of forests by leasing them with safeguards. I actually hope these aspects of the Bill are kept and will find their way into future legislation”.