FRIENDS of the Earth (FoE) and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) are hiding behind a new local nom de plume 'Friends of the Forest.' Why? Because their local activists, prominently Bob Freshwater, Mary Newton and Anne Prufer have failed to persuade the Countryside Agency to go along with their respective organisations' national aims.
These people and their small bands of local followers (mostly NIMBY imports) have been trying to wrap the Forest in Clingfilm for years. Now they have found a new gullible champion, Colin Smith, who sadly appears so intoxicated by the scent that he can no longer see the wood from the trees.
The Countryside Agency must take their recommendations on the strength of the work they have done here and the £1 million-plus of taxpayers' money they have spent. They must not be allowed at this late stage to be persuaded by the result of the signatories of a potentially misleading petition.
Hopefully the final result will be the right one. – Mike Jones, Redbrook-on-Wye.