FC land and jobs

Mark,  I pressed the button too early and didn't finish my comment.    The Forestry Commission could be recreated as a Commissioning Body (involving as much local input as needed)  and Forest Enterprise could be separated to provide the contracting role and encouraged / required to involve use local input, groups, NGOs to assist in that as required.

Mark, Having watched Question Time and the discussion on forests last night I was struck by a number of things that Damian Green said.

Firstly, when he started to give his answer he was using the same words in vitually the same order that my MP wrote to me. It would be nice to original thought on this matter.  I felt his heart wasn't in his answers and given the feeling of that studio I am not surprised.

He referred to the previous government selling of FC land (yes they did -25,000 acres and shame on them) but omitted to mention that the current government have already instructed FC to dispose of 100,000 acres at market value outside of the discussion paper.

He said this wasn't about (see paragraph above).

The comment that I seized on was the principle (and I can't remember his exact words) that the customer and supplier should pot be one and the same and that FC was in this position.    If that is the problem they have the answer in front of them.  A simple management change could create the Forestry Commission as a commissioning body

Well Sooty the wealth has all gone on expensive housing for the 70% that vote as far as I can make out; speculation in the housing sector magnifies boom and bust amplified by a private rental sector that has lifted property out of reach of the First Time Buyer charging high rents to the Priced Out; a trillion mortgage debt etc etc; how many retired and not working are there ?

To environmental matters; it was announced as a Forest Sell Off, it was not in any manifesto and unrestrained by all the sorts of proviso's that have now been entered into such as "charitable trusts" for Forests such as Dean and New Forest etc etc etc; if stories in the media are wildly speculative that is because the government has introduced a policy without any bones to it. It deserves them.

It seems that the great Liberals such as Keynes and Beveridge are to be ignored by these "orange" pygmies while we head for another recession lashed to a monetarist mast such as Keith Joseph's in 1981-82 when the public borrowing requirement was greater still stripping our industrial base still further while the generation of self indulgence retires to its country residences.

To the Sell Off; it is the 100 year historic settlement that has maintained the FC that suffers as a consequence and this Sell Off will cost money it appears; I still maintain that a set of "new coalition" quangoes sorry charities in these places is simply moving the goalposts; it would have been simpler to remove the economic duty on FC on agreed heathlands, uplands and agreed areas of Forests of Dean and New Forests retaining teams of experience and considerable expertise. Maybe we should have some clarity on new and old salaries here ?

I would urge the debate to now move to the uplands where 50-80 years of investment, loved appropriate or not in sitka plantations is due to be felled. These should be sold off at market value and a debate had as to how these are replanted rendering as much timber with jobs in LFA's and environmental value; hopefully a side benefit of new tree diseases would seem to be reducing the value of forest monoculture.

I would suggest Mark that you are sitting a bit too close and comfortable to this government. I can not see your comments re the inconsistancy re the delivery of the FC Sell Off as sufficiently robust and independent; why was this all not clarified in the manifesto ? Where is the Green Vision in this ?

Thanks, Mark, for posting this map. It really does show how well distributed the FC land is distributed around the country, easily accessible to a large proportion of the population.

I completely agree with Sooty that this country has been living well beyond its means for years, but this is of very limited relevance to the FC which costs extremely little to run - I think it's about £0.30 per person per year. In comparison, the national debt is something like £16,000 per person, and the English NHS budget alone is about £2,000 per person. So the financial argument just doesn't really add up, and even less so when you take into account the unquantifiable public benefits provided by free access to FC woodland.

Well I am a big fan of Caroline Spellman think she is doing a good job in very difficult times.We are paying for living beyond our means for 20 years.We have spent more than we earned as a country and no way can that carry on.