HANDS Off Our Forest has just responded to the latest government proposals concerning our Forest of Dean and other public woodlands across England expressing our firm opposition. HOOF are not satisfied: that the proposed Guardians have sufficient powers to do their job, that the governance structure proposed is not the one that HOOF supported in January and that the issue of sufficient funding for our public forests has not yet been resolved.

While claiming our Forest will remain ours, the government also wants to open our cherished woods up to the market and commercial interests.

These could include stone, mineral and energy companies. In fact under the new proposals there will be very little the new directors will not be able to do.

The government plans to do this with new laws that would turn the Forestry Commission into a self-financing public corporation run by directors appointed by the government with the power to sell woodland.

Some sales of woodland may be substantial, without definition of what "substantial" means! That sounds a little familiar.

Forest Guardians, which might include people from our communities, will be appointed to "raise the alarm" and advise against major sales, but we are not convinced they will have any real legal power to stop sales or to prevent private interests from having an unbalancing influence on our precious Forest.

Many of these proposals have been turned on their heads. Recommendations made by the Independent Panel for Forestry (IPF) which the government appointed following the successful HOOF campaign of 2010/11 which defeated a law which would have allowed our woods to be taken from us and sold to the highest bidder or given away.

The Chair of the IPF, Bishop James Jones of Liverpool, met with HOOF and told us he would be "unhappy if the government abandoned the proposal to establish a Parliamentary Charter or if it marginalised the proposed Guardians to the point that they become ineffectual, if it failed to establish a distance between the government and the management and development of the public forest estate.

These were all key elements of the Panel's recommendations and report. The government would be unwise to provoke a public reaction by failing to follow through on the Panel's recommendations.

HOOF's task is to persuade the government the path it is pursuing is unwise, especially as it is potentially offensive to anyone who uses our woods, whatever political party (or not) they support.

The Panel was informed that maintaining the status quo wasn't an option, that the "Forestry Commission" had to evolve so recommended a new model which HOOF cautiously welcomed as it seemed it would give local communities a greater say in management and our Forest's protection from future sell-off and interference from politicians and Whitehall civil servants.

Now our Forest is under threat again. The cost to the taxpayer to keep all of England's public forests maintained on behalf of the people and nature is at least £22 million per year, or 35p per person / 90p per household. That's all we've been asking for and it's a bit of fluff in the Treasury pocket – just 0.003 per cent of the total of what the government spent in 2012, and one per cent of Defra's budget for 2013-14.   According to figures from the government's Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2012, just 12 per cent of expenditure by the Forestry department went to the Forestry Commission in 2011-12

Considering that the annual returns on this £22 million annual investment have been estimated at £400 million plus in natural capital, that is health and many other benefits to people, nature and the economy (especially tourism that a well-maintained forest will attract) surely that £22 million represents good value for money and a sizeable 20 to one return?

HOOF find it impossible to believe the Treasury cannot find this sum to provide all the public benefit our Forests deliver.

HOOF has very real concern that the government wants the Forest of Dean and others to be put into the hands of a public corporation because the Treasury wants to make a profit from it. It would seem that as a public corporation the public forests could be more susceptible to privitisation without sufficient safeguards. HOOF is yet to identify those safeguards.

The government's definition of a self-financing public corporation, according to the same document the spending figures came from, is that "its income must be from selling goods and services into a competitive market rather than from regulatory fees. It must trade profitably and not require subsidies or other financial support from its parent department".

So has the time come for Foresters to pick up their banners again and rally around HOOF? Are we going to burn Big Ben on a big bonfire again?

Not yet! But we are very concerned.

We cautiously await the results our submission (and those of other groups) should have on the next phase.

We are thankfully not in the same position as we were in 2010/11 – back then the government would not communicate with us, and were trying to push a law through without any consultation. Now, HOOF is being invited to meetings with the government and the Forestry minister David Heath and new legislation is only being proposed, not being pushed through. This is indeed a very positive development.

For what will be three years now HOOF has been tirelessly engaging with government to protect our Forest. However, HOOF does need your support to raise funds so we can continue. We also need to produce leaflets that explain the complicated road – some of it a legal labyrinth – which HOOF has been responding to since the government admitted they "got it wrong" in February 2011. We will also need volunteers to keep battling on, helping to raise awareness and if necessary raise the alarm and rouse our thousands of supporters should the government not drop or significantly amend its latest proposals

The best form of protection our Forest has and always will have is the people of the Forest of Dean. Whatever Guardians are appointed by government the Forest will have thousands more who will stand together and defend one thing that unites us all

Our Forest!

HOOF asks for your continued support. The journey to protect our Forest is not over yet!

HOOF's response to the government can be viewed on the website http://www.handsoffourforest.org">www.handsoffourforest.org. If you want to help HOOF by volunteering contact [email protected]">[email protected]

– Rich Daniels, Chairman, Hands Off Our Forest.