§ Paddy TippingTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many parcels266W of land have been identified by the Forestry Commission for disposal in England; how many have been the subject of agreement offers to the local planning authority to secure continued access to the land; how many have been sold; and how many of those sold were subject to access agreements in each year since 1997.[70042]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 16 July 2002]: The Forestry Commission has freedom to sell some woodlands due to their relatively small size and location, as part of the continuous process of rationalisation of its estate. This process involves the acquisition of land which will contribute to the Commission's wide-ranging objectives, as well as the sale of certain areas.
In all sales cases, the Forestry Commission notifies the relevant Local Authority when an area of woodland is to be sold. The information concerning Forestry Commission woodland sales and Continued Public Access Agreements (CPA) in England, for each year since 1997, is therefore as follows:
Financial Year Number of woodlands identified for sale Number of woodlands sold CPA Offered CPA Accepted 1997–98 16 521 29 8 1998–99 3 30 13 3 1999–2000 10 11 8 0 2000–01 11 17 5 1 2001–02 8 18 3 0 Total1 137 128 58 12 1At the start of Financial Year 1997–98, the Forestry Commission had a total of 89 woodlands already identified for sale.