Caroline Spelman

Did Caroline Spelman have a bad experience of a tree at some stage in her life? In the face of massive public dissent, according to this article, she is still keen to sell off as much forest as possible under current rules.

This is after the legislative change, allowing her to sell off still more forest, which she had favoured previously, has been abandoned due to its manifest unpopularity.

According to the article, Mrs Spelman MPs on the Environment Select Committee that the sales would go ahead within the spending review, which runs to 2015, and the delay would not hit Defra’s budget. She said the funding had been “anticipated but not allocated”.

And once protection for access and other benefits of woodland had been addressed, “the planned sales will be in a position to resume within the period of the spending review, and won’t have an impact on expenditure”, she said.

The Environment Secretary also defended the consultation on plans to dispose of the remainder of the public forest estate to businesses, charities and communities which provoked widespread anger.”

What do you think the benefits of this approach are? Do you have any insights about why she won’t let it drop?