Video: Friends of
Bedgebury concerned about sell-off plans

by Angela Cole

acole@thekmgroup.co.uk

A forest visited by 300,000 people a year could be cut off to
public access if government plans to sell off the country’s
woodlands go ahead.

That is the fear of supporters of Bedgebury Pinetum in
Goudhurst, which, as a Forestry Commission forest, could be sold
off under the new proposals.

The Kent Messenger revealed the government proposal to sell off
Forestry Commission land back in November.

Public consultation started today and this week a number of
public figures, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, voiced
their opposition to the Public Bodies Bill.

Friends of Bedgebury administrator Malcolm Dove said: “We have
300,000 people coming to Bedgebury, both the Pinetum and the
forest. Potentially that amenity is going to be lost; certainly it
is going to be changed and damaged.”

The Pinetum has the most complete collection of conifers in the
world, and curators regularly visit extreme sites around the globe
collecting seeds of rare and endangered species.

Originally set up as the National Conifer Collection in
1925, it opened new facilities including a visitors’ centre in 2006
and saw its visitor figures rise from 40 or 50,000 to 300,000.

Each year about 5,000 school children visit on educational
trips.

It also has outdoor activities including nature trails and
woodland walks; cycle hire and paths, and the aerial assault
course, Go Ape.

The proposals have meant projects in the pipeline or under
way have had to be postponed.

A new propagation centre at the Pinetum, for which the Friends
have raised £80,000 and which would grow up to 70,000 seeds in a
seed bank, is now on hold.

Mr Dove said: “You cannot justify spending the money on projects
while these plans are being discussed.

“I hope that the outcry is sufficiently loud that they change
their minds, or limit any sell-off to areas where it will have less
impact.”

The Kent Green Party has described the sell-off as environmental
vandalism.

Stuart Jeffery, chair and leader of the Maidstone Green Party,
said: “Bedgebury is a much loved forest and an asset to the county.
We cannot let it be sold to the highest bidder and lost to the
country forever.”

• Defra says that full measures will preserve the public benefits of woods and forests.
  For more information visit the Defra website
• Click here to join an online petition against the plans