TWO men who quizzed Forester Dave Harvey about his rights to be collecting timber in the woods near Cannop have really raised his hackles.

"They jumped out of a Jeep and came right up and asked what I thought I was doing here," said Mr Harvey, who has permission to take timber in the woods and had put up signs to show he was working by one of the cycle paths.

He believes they were connected with cycling and behaved as if they owned the woods.

"Then they said I had one of my van wheels on the path and could be damaging it. It's only a light van, and in any event they're in a place where timber has to be harvested anyway, and when that happens there will be more damage – it goes with the territory.

"Who makes the rules? They appear to make paths all over the place and nobody questions them, even though they're ruining the woods. They ride all over the place and they are leaving tracks everywhere, as well as frightening animals.

"To make matters worse they seem to think you should be getting out of the way for them wherever you are."

Mr Harvey says he gave them a piece of his mind but was still seething with anger over the incident.

A Forestry Commission spokesman commented: "Unfortunately both of our contractors were in the wrong here. It was unprofessional of them to get into an argument and they should have raised the issue with their Forestry Commission contract manager. No vehicles should have been parked on, or using, what is a newly constructed section of cycle track within the forest."