Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 2 February 2011.

Forestry Commission

Question: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. I want to ask him a very specific question. There is currently de facto access on foot to virtually all the public forest estate. There is de facto access by bicycle to virtually 100 per cent of the forest estate. There is also a great deal of access for horses. Will the Minister give the guarantee to the House this afternoon that if there were to be a transfer of land from the Forestry Commission, there would be no decrease whatever in any of those levels of access—on foot, by bicycle or for horses?

Answer: The noble Lord is a very distinguished former chair of the Forestry Commission. He will know that what he said is not strictly speaking accurate and that something of the order of 20 per cent of the forestry estate has no access because it is on leasehold land and access was never granted to it. He will also know that under his watch and that of the Labour Government, some 25,000 acres were sold without any safeguard whatever. I can give examples of woods that are now locked as a result of that, one of which is quite close to where the noble Lord was speaking only last week at a rally in Cumbria. As he will know from our consultation, we are very anxious to maintain access. Where we lease land, as we propose in the consultation, we will be able to provide secure conditions for it and will do what is appropriate at the time.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 724 c1406-7
Session: 2010-12
Oral question type: 1st Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Related items: Forestry Commission
Monday, 28 February 2011
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: Access Forests Property transfer
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk