Open Letter to the Forestry Commission regarding its Our Shared Forest study and consultation, dated January 2019:

May I ask that your interesting and important consultation, now closed, on the future of the Forestry Commission-controlled lands of the Forest of Dean be re-opened for another three months?

I’ve lost count of the friends and neighbours who have responded with “never heard of it” when I’ve asked.

Many have said they would really like to have responded.

The study contains much to commend it and is well worth the time spent.

The six weeks allowed for the consultation was too brief in these exacting and pressured times, nor was there much publicity for it.

A powerful reason for re-opening the consultation is the striking omissions which need to be addressed before the study is finalised.

For instance not enough is said about the effects of climate change and how we can adapt – hardly surprising given the present government’s stalemate and its abrogation of numerous civic responsibilities.

Remember the fires on Saddleworth Moor last summer and last month and the fires in Norway and recently in California – how lucky we were that the tinder box Forest of Dean last summer did not go the same way!

What about doubling tree cover over a wider area, indeed nationally, to sequester more carbon?

– Andrew Darke, Green Party member.