FOREST of Dean commoner Mick Holder has accused a planning inspector of being "unable to see the wood for the trees" after granting permission for a house to be built on Forest waste at Mile End.

Mr Holder, secretary of the Commoners' Association and a member of the district council's delegation to Westminster to contest Government proposals to sell off woodland, says many people still failed to understand what waste was.

The waste, he said, was as important to the Forest of Dean as the woodland.

"The waste is hugely important not only for wildlife but for residents. Many cottages and houses are entirely surrounded by waste. It's disposal could create massive problems," he said.

Mr Holder said waste was open or unenclosed land within the Statutory Forest.

"This is where our mineral rights lie and where our commoning or freedom of pasture is based," he said.

"It is where our picnics are held, where our children and grandchildren play, it is our village greens, it is land we pass over to get into our properties and land we have to cross to get into the woodlands."

Mr Holder said Forest people never believed or accepted they had no rights of way, no rights of access or had failed to establish rights of common of pasture. Common of pasture had been granted by Royal Charter in 1217.

He said: "I want everyone to understand that waste is as important to the Forest as the woodlands are. I always believed waste was protected in the same way and I am very disappointed at the inspector's decision at Mile End."