Forests sell-off: ‘We want to protect them’

But Caroline Spelman stressed that the proposals were only going out for consultation and that no final decision had yet been made.

Her comments come on the heels of growing public opposition and a critical Commons motion tabled by the Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland.

The Government had a majority of 50 in Wednesday night’s debate on the planned sell-off, with one other Lib Dem MP – party president Tim Farron – and the Conservative MP for New Forest East – Julian Lewis – voting with the Opposition, after the Forestry Commission said that 400 jobs would be lost over the next four years folowing its loss of responsibility for managing the forests.

Unions representing Forestry Commission workers warned that they may take industrial action.

“The primary reason for this consultation is to put in place better protection for our woods and forests.” Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman

Ian Waddell, national officer of Unite, said: “These job cuts and massive land sales will be resisted by our members. They make no commercial sense and are driven by a Tory-led philosophy which was not in any party manifesto and was never put before the public at the General Election.

“If the Forestry Commission try to implement these cuts, we will use every means at our disposal to fight them, including industrial action to protect jobs.”

At question time in the Commons today, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, Mary Creagh, renewed the attack, asking: “Isn’t it the case with the public forests that you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t know why you’re doing it, and nobody wants you to do it? Isn’t it time to stop and think again?”

Mrs Spelman said her department had so far received 4,200 responses to its proposals, but most of these were in reaction to inaccurates press reports on the proposals, rather than on the proposals themselves.

In an interview for tonight’s Channel 4 News, Mrs Spelman said the plans were all about protecting the heritage of the forests.

“The primary reason for this consultation is to put in place better protection for our woods and forests, so that people who love them and want to walk in them, ride in them, cycle in them can do so now and for future generations,” she said.

And she rejected claims that the cut in grants to the Forestry Commission would prevent the organisation from doing important work to protect trees from disease.

“It is perfectly possible for a commercial operator to manage these commercial forests and – if we lease them with conditions to ensure that access is protected – then I believe the Forestry Commission can then focus on the important areas, like getting to grips with the exotic diseases that are threatening the trees in our country.”