Public Forest Estate (England)

Part of Opposition Day — [10th Allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 4:47 pm on 2 February 2011.

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Photo of Caroline Spelman Caroline Spelman The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 4:47, 2 February 2011

As always, my hon. Friend makes a sensible intervention, pointing out that we are still in the first week of a 12-week consultation. To be kind to Labour Members, a lot of their questions arise from reading media reports, and they would do well to read the consultation document.

The hon. Member for Wakefield claims that people are going to turn up at their local woods only to find them locked up and gated off. The case to which her party leader has consistently referred-that of Rigg wood-has also been mentioned in this debate, but in fact that wood was put up for sale by her Government in April 2010. So perhaps she would like to go to Grizedale to explain to the people of Rigg wood what happened as a result of what her Government did. We, on the other hand, will be guaranteeing access and public benefit rights through the terms of the leases.