PCS: Staff and campaigners should help decide forest’s future
Trade unions representing Forestry Commission staff have today (17 Mar) written to environment secretary Caroline Spelman to express “extreme disappointment” that workers and campaigners are being excluded from discussions about the commission’s future.
The letter states:
“We are extremely disappointed that there is no one on the panel representing those that work in the Forestry Commission, i.e. the forestry trade unions.
“There is no one to represent the many people who campaigned to save our forests from sell-off, there is no one representing a wide range of users of the forest, and there is very limited representation from people with expertise on multipurpose forestry and running the public forest estate.
“There is no mention of holding this investigation in public or conducting public consultation on the important issue of forestry in England.
“This is an issue of importance to all of us; not just those using the forest, but those that work in it and in connected industries, and all of us that benefit from biodiversity, climate change and other important environmental issues.
“The Forestry Commission already provides very good value for money and we are concerned that the terms of reference from the panel include opening up the debate again, as to whether or not the forests have be owned and managed publicly, something on which the vast majority of the people in this country have made their views perfectly clear.
“It is essential that our forests remain publicly owned, managed and properly resourced in order to achieve all the benefits we want from them.”
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “The public will be rightly outraged if the government’s apparent climbdown turns out to be nothing more than a PR trick to allow it to justify privatisation of our forests by another means.
“Privatisation and the job cuts expected in May will frustrate the public’s declared wish for publicly owned forests managed by a properly funded Forestry Commission, and plans for both should be scrapped immediately and completely.”
ENDS
Notes
– A copy of the letter is also attached as a PDF
– For information and interview requests contact PCS national press officer Richard Simcox on 020 7801 2747 or 07833 978216
– The Public and Commercial Services union represents civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 300,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies, and in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK’s sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich
– Follow PCS on Twitter
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