I knew that the new Con-Dem government would be looking for ANYTHING to hatchet to raise cash but it never even occurred to me that they'd consider selling off UK habitat. Now it transpires they intend to sell around half of the 748,000 hectares of woodland overseen by the Forestry Commission - which includes a lot of not-forest but instead a lot of much loved moorland, heath and brownfield sites - This is scheduled for doing by 2020, apparently.
Access to Forestry Commission land by us, the ordinary members of the public, has legal backing. What worries me and lots of others like me is that if the land no longer belongs to the Forestry Commision this will no longer be the case. Who knows what will then happen to the land? Golf courses, hotel developments, well anything becomes possible.
I am also really concerned about this because the FC is a partner in an organisation called the Forest Education Inititive, which amongst other functions promotes and organises Forest School networks across the country. I am lucky, I have my own woodland to run my Forest School events in but many schools rely on the use of local FC woodland to participate in FS sessions. What will happen if these woods are sold off? Will there still be access? Who knows?
This is a bad case of "selling off the family silver" for a very short term gain, but without thinking of the long term effects.
So please, if you, too dislike the idea of no longer being able to visit your local FC woodland or heathland to walk, play, take part in events or just know it is there if you ever wanted to visit,.sign this petition
This is serious. It needs to be stopped.
This is a terrifying concept! I haven't seen any media coverage of it, which is very worrying too. Off to sign the petition immediately. Thanks for bringing it to light.
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