WITH regard to the currently very slim proposal from the Government regarding Forest ownership and management.  Please stop pandering to the hysterical comments of the few and promote the opportunity for the many. Small-minded people like Jan Royall and Colin Smith are playing small politics and need to be held to account.

I see this as potentially a huge opportunity. In 2010 Why does the Government have to stand the cost of owning and managing forests? They are no longer a strategic asset as they were in the first and second War. If the Forest of Dean is commercially viable, why should the people of the Dean not get direct benefit, rather than the Treasury taking all the earnings?

Even today it is reported in the press that the people of Dover have put a £200m bid to the Government to buy the port of Dover. Why should we not do similar for the Forest?

The people of the Forest of Dean need to lift their heads up and see the potential in this. Why not have a community-based company buy, manage and run the Forest of Dean for the greater good of the community?

I propose that a group of like-minded people look at this as a corporate buy out, using a co-operative not for profit company to do so. The people of the Dean can all become shareholders and thus have some say over the future of the Forest. What is not wanted or helpful is vocal minorities holding court with their spurious and narrow views, purporting to speak on behalf of the many, but with no mandate.

As yet no one knows the totality of what is proposed, and there is yet to be a full consultation. Let us hold our fire until the real enemy is identified and in our sights.  We can then aim at the right targets to maximum effect.

Hysteria was never a constructive emotion, proved yet again in this instance.

–  Cllr Stephen R. McMillan, Mid Dean Division, Gloucester