I really need some help rolling the tape for this Sunday’s TickerTape, so if you like taking part in the TickerTapes and are available, please come along to my house (see forum for details) on thursday evening at 7:00, for doughnuts and a healthy dose of RSI….
This was last one we did, https://www.blackcanoncollective.co.uk/2010/08/17/hillbillies-with-ocd/
So, who can make it…?
Welshmill Park, Frome
Saturday 21st May, 12 till 4pm
Frome Recreation and Open Grounds Supporters (FROGS) have got through the first stage for a £50,000 grant to improve Welshmill park and the bid includes a bike track, natural play features, woodland trails, etc, but there is a lot to do before the deadline in September.
We are running a Consultation event on Saturday 21st May, because we need to hear people’s views, and also gather evidence to include in our bid.
Please come along! Bring your bikes! No hard work involved. I will put up a gazebo and be organising a few bike games involving balloons, water pistols and tightropes. The idea is to attract people to Welshmill and sample their views about what they would like to see in the space.
All help will be very welcome, so why not pop by? Fill in a questionaire! Help with the activities! Talk to people about the loveliness of biking in general and bike tracks in Frome in particular!
The vast majority of the public oppose the government’s plan to sell off all or part of the publicly owned forests and woodland in England.
A YouGov poll found that 84% of people agreed the woods and forestsshould be kept in public ownership for future generations, while only 2% disagreed.
The plan has already prompted a mass demonstration in the ancient Forest of Dean, and an online petition organised by the campaign group38 Degrees has attracted more than 164,000 names so far.
“Most British people want our woodlands protected for future generations and for wildlife. Yet right now the government is pushing through plans to privatise them,” said David Babbs, executive director of 38 Degrees, whose members paid for the poll. “The government consultation looks like it will ask the wrong question. They are asking us how the forests should be privatised. But most of us don’t want our forests privatised at all.”
Caroline Spelman, the secretary of state for the environment, food andrural affairs, will be given the powers to sell land currently run by theForestry Commission under the Public Bodies bill. In November, her minister, Jim Paice, told a House of Lords select committee: “We wish to proceed with very substantial disposal of public forest estate, which could go to the extent of all of it.”
Responding to the poll, a Defra spokesman said: “The interest this [issue] has generated clearly shows that the public care about the country’s forests. We do too and that is why protection will be in place. We urge anyone with an interest in this issue to wait for the consultation to be published and see our plans in full and not base views on speculation about privatisation.”
Opponents of the sale of public forests and woods argue that public access has not been preserved following earlier small sales by the Forestry Commission, such as at Pennygrove Wood in east Sussex where “private property” signs were erected, and that wildlife would not be protected. Others argue that privatisation of English woodland could cost the government millions of pounds in lost tax revenues and cancel out most of the money raised from its sale, as private owners enjoy exemption from capital gains tax, income tax and inheritance tax.
Mary Creagh, Labour’s shadow minister for environment, said: “The Tory-led government plan to sell off England’s forests is an act of environmental vandalism. The public bodies bill, if it is passed, will be a loggers’ charter. Private companies will cherry-pick sites for commercial development, and voluntary groups will be left to look after ancient woodlands without a budget. The true value of England’s forests will never be reflected in the price the Tory-led government gets from selling them.”
Union representatives are also concerned about the loss of 850 jobs in England and the research on climate change and tree diseases carried out by the Forestry Commission. Lorraine Adams, a Forestry Commission scientist and branch president for the union Prospect, said only public ownership would preserve the added value – beyond timber – of forests as havens for wildlife and recreation. She said current rules only preserved access on foot, not for bicycles, horses, cars or visitors with disabilities.
The YouGov poll surveyed 2,253 adults between 13-17 January 2011 and is representative of all UK adults. A second question asked: “To what extent do you support or oppose the government’s plans to sell publicly owned woodlands and forests in England?” Three-quarters of respondents opposed the sale, while 6% supported it. The Forestry Commission owns 199,000 ha of woodland in England.
Original article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/22/poll-england-forest-sell-off
The countries forests need your help to save them from exploitation. As Mountain bikers, forests are our playgrounds, we don’t want the vast majority of trail centers and visitor centers and all the planned developments to be completely obliterated for good. As the only real reason these trail and visitor centers exist is due to the previous government making it a legal requirement for all Forestry commission land to encourage people to visit the woods by providing trail centers etc. Unfortunately Private woodland, is as it says ‘Private’, so doesn’t have to let anyone in, you may have seen the sign ‘ tresspassers will be prosecuted’ before, well this could become common place at once open legal national forests where you might have ridden a properly crafted mountain bike trail.
Some people might say, ” They’ll still keep all the visitor centers open and running, they’d be daft not to? ” Unfortunately this isn’t the case as visitor centers, however nice and socially effective they are, probably aren’t the most cost effective use of a forest from a business point of view, as visitor centers are less profitable than intensive farming of trees etc, due to infrastructure and running costs etc. and often loose the forestry more money than they gain in a lot of cases.
YOU can do something about it, you can sign the petition online here, to get the government to think twice about this very irresponsible idea, it only takes a few minutes.
This is what the 38 degrees ‘Save our forests’ campaign has to say;
The government is planning a massive sell off of our national forests. They could be auctioned and fenced off, run down, logged or turned into golf courses and holiday villages.
We can’t let that happen. We need to stop these plans. National treasures like the The Forest of Dean, Sherwood Forest and The New Forest could be sold off. Once they are gone, they will be lost forever.
A huge petition will force the government to rethink its plans. If we can prove how strongly the public are against this, they will have to back down. Please sign the petition now.
Find out more: Visit the save our forests action centre to find out more about the forest sell off and download campaign leaflets and posters.