Huge majority oppose England forest sell-off, poll finds | Philip Brennan

Editor's Note: The government keeps forgetting that these forests are not theirs to dispose of - they are bequeathed to the nation in the Magna Carta...

YouGov poll finds 84% of British public agree that woods and forests should be kept in public ownership for future generations.

Damian Carrington | The Guardian | 22 January 2011:

The vast majority of the public oppose the government's plan to sell off all or part of the publicly owned forests and woodland in England.

A YouGov poll found that 84% of people agreed the woods and forests should be kept in public ownership for future generations, while only 2% disagreed.

The plan has already prompted a mass demonstration in the ancient Forest of Dean, and an online petition organised by the campaign group 38 Degrees has attracted more than 164,000 names so far.

"Most British people want our woodlands protected for future generations and for wildlife. Yet right now the government is pushing through plans to privatise them," said David Babbs, executive director of 38 Degrees, whose members paid for the poll. "The government consultation looks like it will ask the wrong question. They are asking us how the forests should be privatised. But most of us don't want our forests privatised at all."

Caroline Spelman, the secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, will be given the powers to sell land currently run by the Forestry Commission under the Public Bodies bill. In November, her minister, Jim Paice, told a House of Lords select committee: "We wish to proceed with very substantial disposal of public forest estate, which could go to the extent of all of it."

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via philipbrennan.net