FORESTRY minister Jim Paice MP, on November 24, 2010, boasted to a committee of the House of Lords, "......we wish to proceed with, ......., very substantial disposal of public forest estate, which could go to the extent of all of it."

We now know, from the consultation document published last week, that the Government's plan for the Forest of Dean and other "large heritage sites" is to transfer ownership or management to a charity. This proposal alone poses a list of questions too long for this letter, but the setting up and running of such a charity would be a hugely complex and expensive task. One can just imagine potential consultants licking their lips at the thought of a fat contract.

No case at all has been made for changing the existing arrangement.

Meanwhile, the Government is pushing ahead with the Public Bodies Bill. If this bill passes unamended, it will empower the Government to do whatever it wants with the public forest estate and will strip the Forest of Dean of its current protection under the 1981 Forestry Act.

An amendment to the Public Bodies Bill, in the names of the Bishop of Gloucester, Baroness Fritchie, Baroness Royall and Lord Clark of Windermere will be debated in the House of Lords. This would exempt the Forest of Dean from disposal and preserve the protections it has under the 1981 act.

In view of the fact that Caroline Spelman, the Secretary of State at Defra, has conceded that the Public Bodies Bill will need to be amended to secure the future of heritage forests, the Government's response to the amendment in the name of the Bishop of Gloucester will be telling.

In the meantime, the Government is muddling along trying to run a consultative process alongside the legislative process that will empower it to do what it wants, regardless of the response to the consultation.

That is fundamentally undemocratic.

The Government should drop all the clauses referring to forestry from the Public Bodies Bill. The current consultation process should be widened to allow the option of continued public ownership under the management of the Forestry Commission.

If, at the end of the consultation period, the Government wishes to change the status of the public forest estate in England, it should so by way of a new Forestry Bill. Our English woodlands and the future generations who will benefit from them deserve nothing less.

– Cllr. Bruce Hogan, Labour and Co-operative, Lydbrook and Ruardean, Labour Group Leader, Forest of Dean District Council.