ONE of Labour's most senior politicians says she believes there's: "Absolutely no danger of the Forest of Dean being sold".

But she fears proposed cuts and changes to the Forestry Commission will lead to a: "general degradation" of services and public access.

Mary Creagh MP, Labour's shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, visited the Dean last week (April 28).

Speaking to the steering committee of the HOOF (Hands Off Our Forest) campaign at Beechenhurst Lodge, she said: "The context is that Defra is facing one of the biggest funding cuts of all.

"A 30 per cent cut is huge and it is going to compromise the nature and quality of the natural environment for the next few years... and it will have an impact on public access."

Facing 30 per cent cuts, Mary Creagh said the Forestry Commission is being sub-divided and losing 28 to 30 per cent of its staff.

"This means there won't be the people to look after the gates, maintain the tracks, combat disease. There won't be the education officers or public access officers... we'll see a general degradation in service over the next years."

There are, it is believed, already proposals for the Commission's headquarters at Bank House in Coleford to take over responsibility for an enlarged area from Shropshire to Lands End in Cornwall.

Bank House staff currently look after the Statutory Forest, the Mendips, Cotswolds, North Wessex Downs, Malvern Hills, Great West Community Forest and parts of the Wye Valley.

Asked if she believed The Dean's statutory forest was still under threat, the Shadow Secretary said: "The Forest campaign was brilliant. I am incredibly grateful to HOOF and other groups for demonstrating the crass stupidity of the policy and engaging people so quickly.

"I believe that the government had its fingers very badly burned over this issue and I think there's absolutely no danger of the Forest of Dean being sold. Anything that is a core heritage forest is pretty safe now.

"You've won that war, but the battles continue."

One of these, said the shadow secretary, is the continued proposal to sell-off 15 per cent of the Commission's commercial estate – which could impact on outlying woodlands around the Dean. Bircham Wood near Newland was recently sold to a private trust.

"Caroline Spelman (secretary of state for Defra) has made it clear the government intends to sell off 15 per cent of forests – the continuation of a policy over the last 16 years.

"Of course they don't have to sell off 15 per cent. That's a myth. It's just a lawyer sticking a finger in the wind and saying '15 per cent sounds about right.'

"I've put through a Freedom of Information request to get the list of sites they're planning to sell. Once we've got the list of what's going to be sold, that's the next story."

After the government's climb down on the sell-off proposals earlier this year, it set up an independent panel to investigate and recommend a strategy for the future of England's public forests. The panel has met once, is due to meet again, potentially in May and is supposed to report in August, although this is rumoured to be unlikely.

HOOF'S legal expert, Alan Robertson, has made a 40 page draft submission to the Independent Panel on Forestry.

Among the draft recommendations are:

• That there be no disposal of the Forest of Dean which might place the public's historic enjoyment of the Forest and the cultural traditions of the Forest at risk.

• That consideration be given to designating the Forest of Dean (as proposed to be extended) or such areas within it as merit special protection an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

• That no change be made to the ownership and management of the Forest of Dean or of the English Forest Estate which might expose the Dean and Lower Wye Valley woodlands to risk such that their long-term future as treasured assets to the community and to the nation cannot be assured.

A spokesman for Forestry Commission England said consultation of staff had closed and on the table were proposals to: Enlarge forest districts, with Coleford being headquarters of the 'West' region, covering six offices from Ludlow to the Quantocks.

Reduce staff numbers from 854 to 617

Prepare for a 40,000 reduction in the estate by 2015 (an area three times the size of the Forest of Dean).