WHILE the Government stated last week that it has scrapped its plans to 'sell-off' or 'transfer' the public forests in England, I fear that the threat to our forestry is far from over.

It is absolutely imperative that the 'independent panel', which will be formed to determine the future of our public forests, includes local experts like Ian Standing and Alan Robertson etc. Although the Government's plans to sell-off/transfer the remaining public forestry wholesale has been scuppered, the 1967 Forestry Act, which was amended in 1981 under the Thatcher government, still permits 'the disposal of a significant area of FC land.' i.e.. up to a maximum 15 per cent per parliament.

My fear is that unless the act is amended, all but the heritage forests could end up being sold or transferred over the next 30 years or so anyway. I would urge everyone to view online 'Forestry Commission – A brief history', which includes a table of the public forestry bought and sold since 1981. http://www.woodlandtrust.org./en/campaigning/save-forests/documents/brief-history-of-the-fc.pdf">www.woodlandtrust.org./en/campaigning/save-forests/documents/brief-history-of-the-fc.pdf

According to the report, 208,000 hectares were sold in 2,700 transactions between 1981 and 1996. Fortunately, land sold dropped dramatically between 1997 and 2010.

Government ministers will be livid that they have had to back down as a result of public pressure. I would like to include the following parliamentary extract. The proposed bill was described by the chairwoman of the Commons environment select committee as "a once- and-for-all legislative permit, so ministers will never, ever again have to ask Parliament for permission to sell forestry land".

"We should not have to, no," said Ms Spelman.

Our MP assured us that we had nothing to fear. Are we to believe that Mark missed this important exchange? Thank goodness we aren't the gullible fools that Mark Harper and our conservative councillors took us for. We simply love our forests and value the work being done on our behalf by the Forestry Commission. It is a sad state of affairs when a comparatively rich country like Britain cannot afford to spend around £15 million a year to preserve its national forests.

I trust that Foresters will not forget this betrayal come the next local and national elections.

Neil Maxfield

Mitcheldean