AN OPEN letter to Mark Harper MP.
We watched you on BBC's Points West proudly announcing to your constituents that we were wrong to worry about the future of our Forest because the Government is kindly offering it to us to run ourselves, by way of a charitable trust.
Can we remind you that the role of the Forestry Commission is to balance its commercial work with environmental awareness and public access.
To successfully fulfil this role a good deal of money is going to have to be found, year after year, to fund wages, pensions, offices, etc.
When the interviewer asked you where the money for this was coming from, we watched you squirm uncomfortably in your seat.
You had to admit that funding would be not be available in the long term, a fact that the government's consultation paper makes perfectly clear.
At present the Dean Forestry Commission expenses amount to £3 million annually, with £2 million raised in timber sales, car parking, permissions and rents. Where on earth are we going to find the shortfall of £1m year on year?
The document says that the charitable trust will be able to access grants but in order to make the Forest more "financially viable" we all know that only the increased planting of conifers will raise the amount of money needed to finance the wage bill of those we pay to administer it. This would be a backward step as the Forestry Commission locally has been increasing the planting of native species.
Also, how would this "charitable trust" be set up? It would almost certainly be an unpaid, full-time job for these well meaning volunteers so the probable volunteers will be retired and well off, not a cross section of our community.
Then, what would happen if the Trust failed because it did not meet the Government's vision of independence ?
Will the ugly spectre of a sell-off be back? No, the Dean Forestry Commission works pretty well as it is. We already have the expert staff who know the area well. We implore you to leave well alone.
Sharon and Alan Freeman
Yorkley