Letter: Mystery of woodlands sell-off

FOLLOWING the Government's secretive Forestry Review, Ian Lang, the Scottish Secretary, stated: 'Our conclusion is that, at this stage of their development, the Forestry Commission woodlands should remain in the public sector.' Not surprisingly, 'Forestry sale ruled out' was a typical media report.

But later on Mr Lang contradicted this statement by saying '. . . the Government will take a number of measures . . . to protect existing public access when the Commission sells forests as part of its disposal programme.'

On 12 April, in a written answer to Margaret Ewing, the Government named 100 of our public woodlands which are currently for sale. Perhaps Mr Lang would explain to us how our public woodlands can 'remain in the public sector' if they are sold off.

Philip Greig

Swindon, Wiltshire