NATIONAL FOREST SELL OFF PETITION

[elite504]

Thanx for the updates folks, - nice one Tintin too, thanx for sharing.

 

[tintin40]

Thanx for the updates folks, - nice one Tintin too, thanx for sharing.

It shows how important this is to us as there are 3 threads on the subject

With out the countryside i'd turn in to a 'roadie'

 

[IDB1]

With out the countryside i'd turn in to a 'roadie'

And my dogs and ferrets would have nothing to do

 

[johnnypie13]

forests

signed up before the vote a while back this is super important people do you want to still ride those trails if so get signings

 

[ededwards]

Re: forests

This is response from my MP (who was found guilty in the expenses scandal but was exonerated by David Cameron. With whom he went to Eton :roll: ).

Dear Mr Edwards

Thank you for taking the trouble to contact me about the current consultation on improving protection for our forests. I regard this issue as of paramount importance, particularly when it comes to safeguarding the public’s access rights and enjoyment of our forests, and more generally in securing our natural heritage.

The Government’s consultation paper guarantees rights to access – our ability to take the dog for a walk, go cycling or horse riding in the woodland we know and love – and maintains and improves biodiversity. I am confident people will continue to enjoy the access and benefits they currently have from England’s woodlands. Indeed, the consultation seeks views on how to protect our woodlands and forests far better than before. For example, the proposals guarantee the future protection of heritage forests by offering them charitable status and they will protect both biodiversity and wildlife conservations.

The proposals will also resolve the conflict of interest where the Forestry Commission is the regulator of the timber sector while at the same time being the largest operator in England's timber market. It should not continue to be both poacher and gamekeeper.

By contrast, Labour sold 25,000 acres of woodland with virtually no protection for access rights. Indeed, as recently as 2009, the previous Government sought to go even further in finding ways to exploit the forestry estate for commercial gain.

I have an unflinching commitment to safeguarding access rights, environmental protections and public benefits. It is regrettable that the Opposition have, for political reasons, distorted this important discussion. We must protect our forests and get people more directly involved in how they are run. We must also get our commercial timber industry independently regulated and placed on a more sound economic footing.
I share with you a strong interest in the protection of woodland and I have already made my views clear to ministers. I would also urge you to respond to the consultation, which can be found at
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/england-pfeconsultation <http://www.forestry.gov.uk/england-pfeconsultation>

Please rest assured that the Government, with my full support, will enhance protection for our forests. Thank you once again for taking the time to write to me on this important matter.

Yours sincerely

Bill Wiggin MP

Good to see that it was all Labour's fault and that the issue is reduced to party politics.

Chump.

 

[oldave]

RESULT! For now at least, but keep watching.

"BBC chief political correspondent Norman Smith said: "Mr Cameron has decided, yes, it's painful to carry out a U-turn, but better that and one day's bad headlines, than months of wrestling with Middle England."

The public outcry over the plans led to half a million people reportedly signing a petition against the sell-off.

"Mr Cameron took a peak out the No 10 window and saw the massed ranks of Middle England marching up the road with the band playing Jerusalem in the background, and decided he was in a particularly deep hole and needed to stop digging," our correspondent said."

Source: BBC News.

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

It was my email that did it:

Dear Mr Williamson,

I have listened with growing concern to the plans to sell of publically owned forests to private companies. I should stress that this is not the Private company (this wouldn't be so bad) but companies privately owned. These companies would then need to make money from them which undoubtedly would lead to restricted access to the public. some of these forests represent the last pieces of a much larger deciduous forest that would have covered much of the country. Your government could well go down in history as the people who sold off the last pieces to be developed. A worst case scenario? As I try to explain to my young daughter who believes that the farm animals would still be in the fields if the whole nation was vegetarian, things that are owned have to make money or they will not exist. This scenario seems a little more likely now doesn't it?

I voted Conservative at the last election as I thought that the Labour leadership lacked the IQ to lead the country. So far your leaders have repaid my faith by putting my wife out of a job, crushing the very slight cinfidence boost that my industry (construction) was enjoying and now by trying to sell off something that really doesn't belong to any of us.

I don't feel that you can trot out the same line of, "Well, we looked at the books and figures and due to the terrible mess we have been left with, we HAD to do it." This does not work all the time. I tried it when my wife caught me with the girl across the road and I said to her, "Well I looked at the figures and...." BIG trouble.

I note that you voted for the above sell off. I'm sure you will tell me that you had to toe the party line, don't want to swim against the flow, etc. Well, as you are so close to your boss, could you pass on the following messages?

The general public don't like being told that, "We are all in this together", by a pair of millionaires. Some of us are more 'in it' than others!
If I hear the word 'Progressive' one more time I'm going to retrain as an assassin!

If you have children perhaps they would like to join my twins and I when we go off to play Frogger on the M6. If you have your way Mr Williamson, very soon it will be the only place left for them to play.

Regards,

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

Yes, I was slightly drunk. I blame Spencer13 for brewing such good beer.

I was going to see if the MP wanted to come mountain biking with me on the Chase. I would have even let him ride my titanium Bontrager. The offer is there should he want to.

 

[Little Mark]

Result!

The people have spoken and, remarkably, the government have listened. For now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12488847

Let's hope this "panel of experts" includes normal folk who simply want to be able to use the public estate freely without being faced with locked gates or restricted access (footpaths only)........

 

[elite504]

Woo-Hoo!
Well done all! We did it!
Lock this for now I guess. . but keep the keys. . . I don't trust the Government. .