Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

I think it's terrible too - we have some beautiful forestry commission managed Forests and Woodlands around here.. I'd hate to see them sold to big business who destroy them

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

Further to the other thread regarding selling the family silver, here is the online petition that you can sign to oppose the sale of our woodlands:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-forests

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

thanks.....

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

AZZ

You will be pleased to know that this only applies to England,the Scottish and Wales FC are not doing it.

Interesting fact is that the English FC only owns 18% of the English Forests, the rest seem quite safe in private hands

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

If only..

this from the Telegraph

Sale of Rigg Wood could herald forests' future
With the Government preparing to sell off some of Britain's forests to the private sector, campaigners have highlighted the case of Rigg Wood in Cumbria as a sign of things to come.
Sale of Rigg Wood could herald forests' future
Rigg Wood was sold for £116,000 in October
By Rebecca Lefort 9:45AM GMT 23 Jan 2011

The padlocked gate tells its own story.
The main entrance to what was once a popular picnic and walking site in the heart of the Lake District is closed. Campaigners say the public have effectively been shut out.

Rigg Wood, a 40-acre (16 hectare) site by the banks of Coniston Water, was sold for £116,000 in October. Many local residents only learned of the sale when they noticed that the small car park at the site had been closed by its new owner.

Now campaigners are warning that Rigg Wood's fate will become a familiar tale if the Government presses ahead with plans to sell off forests throughout England.

Paul Townsend, the chairman of the Save Lakeland's Forests group, said: "What has happened here is a symbol of what could happen if forests are sold.

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"We are very worried about all the woods in the Lakes. Rigg Wood illustrates what can happen without you even knowing about it."

The pretty wood is part of Grizedale Forest, a 6,050-acre (2,447 hectare) forest visited by 200,000 people each year.

When Rigg Wood was still owned by the Forestry Commission, fans of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series could use the car park and stroll 300 yards to the ruin of a circular bark-strippers' hut believed to have been the inspiration for the igloo built Dick and Dorothea Callum, characters in the books.

Other visitors would walk to the nearby jetty, and from there launch canoe trips on to Coniston Water.

Mr Townsend said residents had not been informed of the sale last year, but simply realised their wood was no longer public property when they saw the padlocked gate blocking access to the land at the start of winter.

Walkers can access the site on foot through an entrance in the Lakeland slate wall separating the wood and the road that runs alongside it, but there is no access for cars and the car park remains closed.

Mike Cavanagh, the businessman who bought the land, said: "Although the car parking area has now been closed to vehicular access, public access via the long established and used footpath entrance has not been restricted at all.

"The car park area has been restricted to vehicles due to abuse from people trying to drive their car up a grassy track beyond the car park creating deep mud ruts and doing doughnuts in the car park as well as leaving litter behind.

"This closure was done after checking that 90 per cent of users were not even going in the wood, but using it to go to the lake on the other side of the road – quite often just to take a photo, before moving on a couple of minutes later.

"I am hoping with good management the rest of the wood can be enhanced and regenerated to become closer to a more typical Lakeland woodland habitat along with some small scale timber production suitable to the site."

Mr Townsend, who lives in Satterthwaite, a village in the middle of Grizedale Forest, said: "The new owner is perfectly within his rights to have done what he has.

"Access to forests needs not only to be guaranteed but encouraged. The Forestry Commission did that by putting in car parks and public facilities. There is a big difference between technically allowing access and actually enabling it.

"The new owner can say you can come and walk, but if they don't provide car parks or signage then how do you do it?"

Colin Barr, the chairman of Colton Parish Council, which covers Rigg Wood, added: "He [the new owner] clearly has different objectives for the future of this wood.

"It is an example of what could happen. We don't know what the future could bring, these woods could be sold into private ownership and the owners have the right to do all sorts of things."

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

I would prefer where possible to try to turn Brown belt back into Green belt.

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

It would be nice to think that it was possible Galty, but the brown belt is "used" land and is often scattered in patches and pockets throughout an area. Also people don't always want to buy a house built on brown land as the property may not be in the right place and people fear contamination, etc. etc. Green field or green belt land is always a more attractive proposition to people. There seems to have been an exodus of people moving to the countryside in recent years, particularly now most people have cars and can travel further to their place of work.

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

It may be ok to start with but then in come the loggers as they want to make a profit from what they have bought In my home town as is similar to a story on page one of this debate land donated to the people of the town has recently had a huge Academy built on it as they couldn't get permission to build a housing estate so they built the school and are now knocking down the old school about half a mile away which this has replaced (though only built in the late 60s and in good order) and are going to build houses there..
If thats not a get around nothing is....

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

How about we have a reverse 'Thatcherism' and NATIONALISE our assets (without compensation), taking back ALL our utility services previously 'sold off' for a mere percentage of their actual worth, and put them under the control of the workers employed in those organisations. At a stroke, we could resolve the industrial disputes in what was British Airways, and the London Tube. British Telecom which always was and continues to be a very profitable organisation could also assist our 'National debt' quite considerably.

Re: Selling the Family Silver? Or Prudent Move?

The real issue is the loss of accountability. An organisation owned by the nation is accountable to the Gvt and therefore open to scrutiny.
Once sold, the forests will be the property of whoever paid the most - accountable only to their shareholders.