Yorkshire MP calls for national woodland estate to be extended

Hugh Bayley has urged Ministers not to resurrect hugely contentious plans to sell off vast swathes of land owned by the Forestry Commission amid the ongoing cuts in public sector funding.

The York Central MP has called for the Government to instead pursue a policy where England ends up with more, rather than less, publicly-owned forests each year.

He has claimed the estate should be expanded as it provides huge environmental, health and leisure benefits which would not be promoted by private landowners.

Mr Bayley has written to the Independent Panel on Forestry, which was established after the Government was forced into a humiliating U-turn over its initial proposals for the forestry sell-off.

The panel, which is chaired by the Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, is expected to report back to the Government in April next year with its recommendations on future forestry policy.

However, the deadline for the public’s submissions to the panel is on Sunday, and Mr Bayley has called on campaigners to step up the fight to protect the forestry estate.

The Labour MP, whose campaigns to protect public forests stretch back to 1993, said: “I was pleased when the Government listened to the public outcry earlier this year and suspended forest sales, for the time being.

“However, the Government still intends to sell 15 per cent of public forestry land. I do not accept the idea that only some forests will be left in public ownership or that some access rights will apply to land that is sold off.

“We need public forests to set high standards of biodiversity and public access, to show private forest owners what a well-managed forest can achieve.”

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman announced in February that plans to offload the public forest estate to companies, communities and charities had been scrapped.

The Government had been due to sell the vast majority of 638,000 acres of woodland overseen by the Forestry Commission to raise up to £250m to counter the national deficit, but the proposals sparked a massive public outcry.

Mr Bayley added: “The Government’s climbdown in February shows that campaigning does work. The Government cannot ignore the voices from below.”

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stressed all plans to sell-off public forests had been suspended until the panel reports back next year.

A spokeswoman added: “We’re not going to pre-empt what the panel has to say, and we look forward to their proposals.”

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