For sale: all of our forests. Not some of them, nor most of them – the whole lot.

guardian.co.uk http://bit.ly/gureuN

Define “our”

My bad.

Again, the media are somewhat overhyping the potential results of this, the 38 degrees text has thankfully been tamed down a bit since its original daily mail wannabe version. You can’t just clearfell the forest of dean and turn it into a golf course for example, there is a planning process in place in the UK.

However its something everyone should be aware of and make an informed decision about.

Tsk! Whats the point of buying a forest if I can’t tarmac over it?

Its political correctness gone mad. Bloody tree huggers!

Can I put in a forward order for some logs please?

The alternative headline of “Some forests may be sold, to people who may or may not manage them well, but they won’t all be flattened as planning regulations and tree preservation orders would prevent that” isn’t quite so catchy though.

You know that means you and your mates can club together and buy one?

Seriously.

What better way to preserve/improve your trails?

Actually TPOs aren’t great – apparently for the gogarburn RBS they felled a bunch of TPO trees as it was cheaper to pay the costs of that than design their buildings around them. There are nowhere near enough TPOs granted in the UK either. TPO and AWI and any other local/statutory designations are considered as part of the EIA where required for a planning submission though.

You don’t need to involve planning to fell woodland though, you just need a felling licence from the government (who are selling the forests)

http://frontpage.woodland-trust.org.uk/woodsunderthreat/guide/regulations/cguidecoll04.htm

And even if you don’t bother with a licence it’s only a £2500 maximum fine, although the reality would be much lower because “it’s only trees”

You know that means you and your mates can club together and buy one?

Seriously.

What better way to preserve/improve your trails?

Are you friends with Mr Cameron and Osborn? Got a few pennies/city bonuses tucked away to buy a small estate? I thought the normal people just had enough money to spend on bling bike bits, flat screen tellies and the like. Did not realise most people could afford to buy a forest on the cheap.

How much does a forest go for these days?

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/buying-a-wood/

Everything you need to know here.

A friend and myself seriously considered buying part of the Wyre Forest when it came up for sale in the early ’80s.
Skeys Wood.
I think it was £50 000 for 70 acres, although it was a long time ago and I may have remembered that wrong,in fact, it might have been £70 000 for 50 acres.
I’ve no idea what current prices would be.

Edit;
I just looked at http://www.woodlands.co.uk
Around £10 000 an acre then. 🙁

You don’t need to involve planning to fell woodland though, you just need a felling licence from the government (who are selling the forests)

Yeah I was relating to the felling the forest of dean and building golf courses/center parcs type hysteria.

I would like to buy the woodlands behind the house where I grew up, to stop someone building houses on it, best buy a lottery ticket!

Actually TPOs aren’t great – apparently for the gogarburn RBS they felled a bunch of TPO trees as it was cheaper to pay the costs of that than design their buildings around them. There are nowhere near enough TPOs granted in the UK either. TPO and AWI and any other local/statutory designations are considered as part of the EIA where required for a planning submission though.

Interesting. What is the going-rate penalty for “accidentally” felling a TPO tree? Sounds like these need to be increased a bit, or other deterrents put in place if companies feel they can just ignore TPOs.

Pixelmix. Teh factors of a block of flats near me killed a load of 20 yr old trees he had no right to do . He was made to replace them with decent mature trees – must of cost many many thousands

GEDA – Member
Are you friends with Mr Cameron and Osborn? Got a few pennies/city bonuses tucked away to buy a small estate?…

If they’re flogging them off, they’ll be cheap so their mates can score bigtime.

The point I was trying to make was that if a group of mountainbikers got together, their combined buying power would enable them to protect their riding forever.

And yeah, I could afford a small estate, but that’s irrelevant, I live in Scotland so don’t need to.

Interesting. What is the going-rate penalty for “accidentally” felling a TPO tree? Sounds like these need to be increased a bit, or other deterrents put in place if companies feel they can just ignore TPOs.

From a quick google it seems to be up to maximum of £20k per tree if totally felled, one case that came up wasand another was, so there is quite a bit of variation. Still its not too much money if a tree is in the way of your multi million pound development! The story I heard was from an arborist, they were on site clearing trees anyway and they were told to just clear the TPO trees as it was cheaper to risk the fine than to go through the formal permissions process and get them back to chop em etc.

Your example sounds like a good result TJ.

RBS won’t have noticed a few thousand though (assuming they were found to be guilty in the Gogarburn example). It does sound like the arborist at Gogarburn knew they were protected though. If it is possible to show that they an arborist knew, then higher fines would soon stop them chopping things down.