Those who have been concerned about the plans of the Government to sell off England’s forests will can breath a little easier.
It’s reported in The Guardian that the Government plan to back away from the plan after massive public opposition, up and down the country.
The that consultation started at the end of January will be abandoned.
“Furious backlash”
The Guardian is reporting, “Caroline Spelman, the environment secretary, will announce on Friday that a consultation on the sale of forests will be ended after a furious backlash that united Tory supporters with environmentalists and the Socialist Workers party” – not a set of names you often find in the same sentence.
The paper also also has a quote from an ‘No 10 insider’, “It’s a cock-up. We just did not think.”
As VB pointed out in November 2010, an online petition organised by 38-degrees was raised, objecting to the sell-off, which gained over half a million signatures.
Further down in the Guardian piece …
One government source said: “We have heard, we have listened. The consultation will be canned. The consultation will be terminated. It is now a case of coming up with something everyone is happy with.”
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Image: fugue under CC BY-SA 2.0
