The excellent editorial in the Review  (Sept 17)   about  Forestry Commission land (albeit referred to as Forest waste) challenges the unprincipled proposals to sell what is Crown Land for what presumably is to meet a Government revenue shortfall.

Further legal clarification is being requested from the Forest of Dean District Council concerning  how an  offer of compensatory land could become a material planning consideration during the determining of  planning applications. This aspect was recorded in the published planning schedule used for the planning meeting (September 21) which placed this guidance within the public domain.  Perhaps there are Foresters like myself who have no objection to cottagers proportionally extending their boundary to grow  vegetables etc – or indeed for the use of 106 agreements to establish allotments outside planning envelopes. These are ways for the Forestry Commission and other landholders to work with communities in a positive way, without embarking on a systematic sell off of the Statutory Forest. – Andrew Gardiner, Ruardean.