Access and Conservation Arrangements After Sell Off of England's Public Forests — 2 Feb 2011 at 18:50

The majority of MPs voted to support arrangements for public access to, and conservation of, for England's public forests once they are sold off.

The majority of MPs voted to pass a motion which read:[1]

  • This House
  • deplores the actions of the previous administration in selling off 25,000 acres of public forestry estate with wholly inadequate protections;
  • notes that the previous administration sought to go even further in finding ways to exploit the forestry estate for commercial gain as recently as 2009;
  • welcomes the consultation proposals to guarantee the future protection of heritage forests by offering them charitable trust status;
  • supports the consultation proposals for robust access and public benefit conditions that will be put in place through lease conditions, including access rights for cyclists and horse-riders;
  • believes the leasehold conditions regarding biodiversity and wildlife conservation will safeguard significant important environmental benefits;
  • sees these proposals as important in resolving the conflict of interest whereby the Forestry Commission is the regulator of the timber sector whilst being the largest operator in the England timber market;
  • considers that debate on the future of the forest estate ought to be conducted on the basis of the facts of the Government's proposals; and
  • believes that under these proposals people will continue to enjoy the access and benefits they currently have from the woodlands of England.

This vote immediately followed a vote not to call on the government to reconsider the sale of the Forest Estate.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con262 (+1 tell) 1086.3%
DUP0 4050.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Lab0 233 (+2 tell)091.1%
LDem33 (+1 tell) 0670.2%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 1033.3%
SNP0 4066.7%
Total:295 247686.0%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Julian LewisNew Forest EastCon (front bench)no
Annette BrookeMid Dorset and North PooleLDem (front bench)both
Michael CrockartEdinburgh WestLDemboth
Stephen GilbertSt Austell and NewquayLDem (front bench)both
Mike HancockPortsmouth Southwhilst LDem (front bench)both
Alan ReidArgyll and ButeLDem (front bench)both
Mark WilliamsCeredigionLDem (front bench)both

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