Take the axe to this bad plan

WHEN the coalition was drawing up the radical programme of cuts, tax hikes and cost savings that is now unfolding, policy-makers will have highlighted the likely flashpoints in the year to come.

The trebling of tuition fees, the savage cuts to local authority and police budgets and heavily reduced spending on defence remain areas where party leaders can expect fierce criticism.

But the vociferous public outcry over their plan to sell off much of Britain’s publicy-owned woodland seems to have taken Ministers almost completely by surprise. It should not have done so.

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Today, some of the potential consequences of this misguided and ill thought-out scheme are laid bare. Thousands of sites of conservation and ancient beauty could be placed under threat.

Stunning woodland and acres of natural habitat, which a conservation-focused public body such as the Forestry Commission would know instinctively to preserve, could be left at the mercy of private firms with no strong legal obligation to maintain them. Natural and archaeological sites of real importance could be lost forever.

The concern among the wider public is understandable.

Ministers at Defra are standing firm. They insist that agreements will be built into any leases signed with private firms to maintain all existing public benefits. That may be so. But questions remain about how watertight such agreements will be, without any underlying legal requirement for these key conservation sites to be protected.

At the very least, the Government must ensure that sufficient safeguards are in place.

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But a wider question must be asked about a scheme which seems to threaten the future of our most priceless asset – the Great British countryside.

This sell-off is designed to raise just £250m – a pittance, sadly, in the context of the wider budget deficit. Indeed a report last week suggested it may not even achieve this.

Many of the Government’s schemes to raise funds have clearly been carefully thought out, This sell-off, however, is an area they appear to have rushed into without considering the possible consequences. Ministers would be wise to think again.

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