MARK Harper's latest contribution on the sale of our Forest (On The Mark, January 6) should be read accompanied by the sound of his feet as he desperately backs away from any involvement.

But it's too late for his assurances, that there's really nothing for us to worry about, to be credible.

"There are no government plans to sell the Forest to private enterprise" sounds like an echo of "we have no plans to increase VAT" – one of many assurances that came to nothing. And his assurances sound oddly precise: "no plans to sell the Forest to developers who'd build all over it" - but maybe to ones who'd build over some of it?

Or "no plans to abolish the Forestry Commission", but maybe we'll reduce it to a receptionist and an office cat.

If there are no plans to sell, how does Mr Harper explain the many statements to the contrary and the option to sell sought under the Public Bodies Bill?

If all he really wants is greater local involvement in the management of our Forest, why not just propose a small committee of the local great and good, maybe set up by our elected stalwarts on the district council, to work with the Forestry Commission staff in Coleford?

It would be a lot cheaper than the massive upheavals the Government is currently causing.

And it would allow him to abandon the fiction that only his political opponents support HOOF and start putting HOOF's arguments, urged on him by many Conservatives as well as others, to his Cabinet colleagues.

David Norman

Longhope