ECONOMIC considerations should not overshadow the needs of people and wildlife in the Forest of Dean, the MP who could be Environment Secretary in the next Labour government was told.

Campaign group HOOF (Hands Off Our Forest) met shadow Environment Secretary Maria Eagle at Beechenhurst to outline its case for "clear protection" of the Dean and other public woodlands from disposal of land and functions.

HOOF has also called on the government to follow "in full" the recommendation by the Independent Panel for Forestry's of a board of guardians bound by a statutory charter and answerable to Parliament.

It also wants a guaranteed £22 million from the Treasury for England's forests – which it says would cost each taxpayer 38p a year – "to ensure public benefits, plant health and conservation are protected."

HOOF chair Rich Daniels said: "Our concern would be if there was more focus on the economic rather than the leisure use and wildlife.

"The Forestry Commission has done a good job in balancing the various interests and we are trying to support them as a critical friend."

Ms Eagle said she was unable to make any policy commitments but the report from the independent panel would be the starting pointing for a Labour government.

She said: "I met HOOF in Westminster but I wanted to see the Forest for myself. This is a landscape that should cherished and developed.

"I cannot make any pledges or commitments but I can say we would not be bound by current government policy or models.

"We would make the independent panel's report our guide."

Labour's General Election candidate for the Forest of Dean Steve Parry-Hearn said the future of the Forest of Dean was "central" to his election campaign.

He said: "We cannot emphasise enough that we are against privatisation of the Forest.

"We must protect the Forest of Dean from privatisation."

Forest MP Mark Harper said the government had welcomed the independent panel's report and was committed to retaining forests in public hands.

He said: "The only area where I disagree with HOOF is on the question of the guardians.

"I believe it is essential that there is accountability. It is a questions of who guards the guardians.

"I think it has shown the political system working. There was draft legislation and that was debated and as a result of that debate there were changes."