It's not over!

Thursday, 10 February 2011

By Nial Anderson

CAMPAIGNERS are planning to mount a legal challenge to Government plans to take the Forest of Dean out of public ownership, days after a heated public meeting where the MP failed to appease his constituents and fled under police guard.
HOOF is calling on its supporters to hold off from responding to the consultation document on the future of the Forest, saying it is “fundamentally flawed” because it doesn’t allow an option to keep the Forest of Dean publicly owned and run by the Forestry Commission.

HOOF is concerned the Government is not following due process, by launching a consultation four months after, rather than before, a proposed law – the Public Bodies Bill – that will give ministers the power to dispose of the Forest of Dean.
An individual has started the legal process to seek a Judicial Review, on the grounds the Bill’s forestry proposals and consultation are taking away public property without the public’s consent.
More than 150 people sweltered in a packed upstairs room in the Main Place in Coleford on Friday, as organisers of his public meeting refused to allow windows to be opened. Outside a vocal crowd of 300 people had gathered, frustrated that they were denied access due to lack of space, and could not hear proceedings.
Despite the MP informing those inside that the crowd had been informed there would be a second public meeting, no one The Forester spoke to after the meeting had heard any announcement. The frustration of some people reached boiling point, when after hours of calling for Mr Harper to address them outside, he fled via a side entrance into a police van, dodging protesters and at least one thrown egg.
The Forest MP insisted the consultation was genuine and the only option being discussed was transferring the management or ownership of the Dean to a charitable trust.

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