Letter: Forests privatised by stealth

IAN LANG, the Secretary of State for Scotland, said recently: 'It is inevitable that the Forestry Commission . . . should wish both to dispose of and to acquire small parcels of land with a view to rationalising . . .'

Since 1981, 425,000 acres of our public woodlands have been sold, all without public access agreements, and only 69,000 acres have been acquired. Of the 2,000 woodlands sold, 446 woodlands were over 100 acres in size and 47 were over 1,000 acres. The largest 'small parcel' sold was Glenlivet in Soctland - 8,694 acres.

We have had nothing but lies over this forestry sell-off, including John Major's 1992 election promise not to privatise. Since then 41,000 acres have been privatised and the Government has been forced to reveal its plans to privatise a further 111,195 acres over the next three years.

This ecologically and socially damaging sell-off is being achieved by deceit. We must not be conned. We should request our MPs to force

the Government to allow them a vote on this vital

issue.

Philip Greig

Swindon

Wiltshire