MrNutt, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...
Chat Forum
[closed]
Forestry Proposals - very good or very bad
-
Posted 1 year ago #
-
Commercial enterprise does not do well under government ownership due to many things. One is the inability to borrow due to it being part of the national debt. The tories make it sound wonderful that people can be empowered with à small state and less support. Unfortunetly it is à bit hard for any other party to tell the truth which is most people are too stupid and gullible to do the right thing and they would rather spend all their money on beer fags and tvs than on bettering themselves as that is what the media and private companies have told them is good for them. I never have been able to work out why our elective representatives are not allowed to tell us what to think but commercial companies who only want to make a profit are?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Oh and in some cases the fc is not the land owner. Sweden is covered in commercial forest and it is à lot better managed than the uk. F'ed up my local trails though when i went for à ride today. I am pretty sure the statistic about woodland cover is well out of date now though and the uk now has an above average amount of tree cover.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The Tories yet again selling off anything they can to
Their matesthe private sector every time they gain power!Posted 1 year ago # -
press releaseFrom a 2009 FC press release promoting a proposal to massively increase new planting
[quote]This would mean increasing tree planting by 200 per cent on current levels. It would bring woodland cover in the UK from its current 12 per cent of the land area to 16 per cent, still well below the European average of 37 per cent.
Posted 1 year ago # -
What happened in Sweden was that all the moors where sheep grazed were all planted with forest. Think north york moors and peaks covered in forestry planations.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Lets have a French style revolution and burn the forests! Or maybe not..!
Posted 1 year ago # -
They have been selling off quite a bit over the last few years, they actually own lots of small pockets of woodland as well as the bigger forests. Be interesting to see what does get sold. I can't imagine the bike trails are going to be much of a commercial selling point though. Just hope a lot of the hardwork that's been done by FC staff and volunteers doesn't get bulldozed to make a few quid.
I imagine if this does go ahead there'll be louder voices than ours complaining, there's a lot of different groups using the forests recreationally.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just hope a lot of the hardwork that's been done by FC staff and volunteers doesn't get bulldozed to make a few quid.
Amen to that. Bit worried about what this will mean for our sport in the UK, as the FC are generally one of the more tolerant landowners out there when it comes to people dicking about on bikes in their woods and giving them little or no financial return.
The more challenging side of the sport in particular could lose out if 50% of FC's current holdings end up being managed by private companies. Think how many DH tracks are on FC land, and what a private owner would do in their shoes.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Perish the thought that MTBers might have to pay for custom-built facilities eh?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Posted 1 year ago #
-
Perish the thought that people might not have a choice any more. Having places where you can ride for free (or £2.50 car parking) is obviously great for the sport.
More to the point, I can't imagine that private landowners will be up for opening loads of new pay-to-ride facilities. By all accounts it's something people do for the love rather than the money involved.
Also while the FC do have to worry about people injuring themselves on their land, they effectively self-insure. Private owners can find that they have to stop an activity on their land just because their insurer decides not to cover it any more.
Posted 1 year ago # -
"Mr Agreeable - Member
Perish the thought that people might not have a choice any more. Having places where you can ride for free (or £2.50 car parking) is obviously great for the sport."
Always thought myself that charging admission could be good for the sport, imagine the extra budget available if everyone paid £5 to ride at your local trail centre. It's a pretty trivial cost, less than the price of a cinema ticket and almost certainly less than the cost of petrol to get there for most people, or the cost of the food you'll eat on the day... Yet so many people even dodge the negligible parking fees
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just flicking through the pile of todays papers and I read this little jem from one of the lesser quality rags. 
Dogger Robbie Drance, 50, a regular visitor to Delamere forest in Cheshire with wife Judith, said the sell-off would be the death-knell for the couples hobby. He Fumed: "Our woodlands are a public resource and should remain so. If Private firms build holiday homes in the woods, there wont be any place for outdoor recriational sex."
So it looks like we can add Doggers to petition list Next time I'm on a night ride through Delamere, I must remember to shout "alright Robbie, evening Judith!" at every dogger we pass
Posted 1 year ago # -
I run a bunkhouse next to Brechfa Forest in Wales. Sorry to tell you folks that the Welsh Assembly is already ahead of the game on this one. They have published a strategy to build windfarms on all forestry commission land in Wales. They have already entered into contracts with developers and the planning applications will start to be made within the next few months.
At the last offical meeting with the developers and local community, the developers said they are planning to close the MTB trails in Brechfa forest for 2 years and build a windfarm on that land. Rumour has it that as the trails were built with EU grants they can't be damanged, so the developers are planning to move the locations of the turbines.
However, where trails were built by volunteers they will not be protected. I hear that Afan will be badly effected.
Jillie.
http://www.brechfa-bunkhouse.comPosted 1 year ago # -
Thanks for the clarification druidh. I would still be very worried about any sell off in england and wales though as pressure for scotland to follow would be high. As for charging some moderate charge for car parking might be ok but any charge for a purpose built facility seems like the thin end of a very thick wedge to me in the absence of any definition of "purpose built" Is Glentress purpose built? Is the WHW purpose built? Are the ski areas purpose built? I dont think it is possible to have a workable legal defintion of "purpose built" that would prevent charging for access to the countryside in general and so I am dead against charging for use of publicly owned facilities, private landowners are already able to charge for use of their land etc
Posted 1 year ago # -
Personally I don't have any view on this until more detail is available. However having said that I didn't vote for Call me Dave, I wouldn't trust him or his cronies under any circumstances and I can't think of any single thing that would be good for him and his ilk that I'm likely to be happy about.
We shall see.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Now, if there was any chance at all of them delivering on the promises of acting to get rid of the "compensation culture" then that might combine nicely with this- remove the threat of liability from landowners. But they won't actually be doing any of that.
Posted 1 year ago # -
At the last offical meeting with the developers and local community, the developers said they are planning to close the MTB trails in Brechfa forest for 2 years and build a windfarm on that land. Rumour has it that as the trails were built with EU grants they can't be damanged, so the developers are planning to move the locations of the turbines.
However, where trails were built by volunteers they will not be protected. I hear that Afan will be badly effected.
That doesn't sound good
Re the more general point - it's not necessarily bad in theory, but it almost certainly will be in practice.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Think how many DH tracks are on FC land, and what a private owner would do in their shoes.
TBH they'd be hard pushed to be bigger ****s than the FC
Posted 1 year ago # -
Mr Agreeable - Member
Think how many DH tracks are on FC land, and what a private owner would do in their shoes.Build more and charge for use?
Posted 1 year ago # -
druidh - isn't there already a fair bit of privately owned/managed bits of forest? Not many have bike tracks on them do they? Llandegla is the only one I can think of.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Laggan
Golspie
DrumlanrigPosted 1 year ago # -
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/WolfTrax
It's not a very extensive list is it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
No - but it shows what could be possible.
BTW - Wolftrax is now part of Laggan Forest Trust - a partnership including FCS and the local community.
Posted 1 year ago # -
As I understand it Strathmashie (Laggan) is FC owned , and only managed in partnership with the LFT but still wholly dependant on the FC?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Perfect moment.
Privatise in return for Scottish access.............
Negative into a positive - true change.
Posted 1 year ago #
Topic Closed
This topic has been closed to new replies.
