Any doubt about how Foresters might feel about the threat to their beloved Forest posed by the Public Bodies Bill was answered at the packed public meeting at the Miners' Welfare Hall on Friday.

We don't want it sold. We think that talk of a community buy out is, "pie in the sky", and overwhelmingly we approve of the way the Forestry Commission manages our woodlands and we want that to continue.

 However, if the Coalition decision-makers are to listen, they won't listen to me or other Labour Party stalwarts like Graham Morgan, Max Coborn, Frank Beard or Bill Hobman. We have Labour Party written through us like a stick of Blackpool rock.

 They will listen to the 68.8 per cent of the Forest of Dean electorate who voted either Conservative or Lib Dem in the recent general election.

 If you did vote for parties of the Coalition, please write to Mark Harper or Nick Clegg and tell them that this is an issue of such importance to you that it will change your voting pattern for a lifetime.

In this regard, there were three people at Friday's meeting that could make a difference.

Heather Dalziel, Lib Dem district councillor for Littledean and Ruspidge, spoke eloquently against the closure of Cinderford library. Will she undertake to write to every Lib Dem MP and peer asking them to back Baroness Jan Royall's amendment to the Public Bodies Bill to exempt the Forest of Dean from any sale?

Maurice Bent, recently elected Verderer and friend and confident of Mark Harper MP, must come off the fence. He was widely applauded, and deservedly so, for his role as chief cheerleader in the Save Our Services campaign. Mark Harper nominated him for the position of Verderer and Tories by the coach-load packed the council chamber in Shire Hall to vote for him.

Will he tell his friend Mark Harper that he is wrong and completely out of touch with the will of his electorate?

Finally, Brian Robinson, county councillor for Brooksdean, district councillor for Mitchel­dean and Drybrook and cabinet member on the Forest of Dean District Council has voted with the Conservative line throughout, but I suspect that he is uneasy with their position. Will he publicly declare his opposition to the sale of the Forest of Dean and urge his colleagues to change tack?

– Cllr Bruce Hogan, Labour and Co-operative Lydbrook and Mitcheldean, Labour leader Forest of Dean District Council.