Forests to be sold for development

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Not sure if you've heard but DEFRA plans to sell the forests for
development. A petition has been created, assuming you agree please sign and
publicise:

Stop Uk Forestry Destruction petition


So what? The Forestry Commission is sitting on about £2.5 billion of assets in 748,000 Ha of forests, why does the government need to be in charge of growing trees? There will still be restrictions on use, they'll still be accessible to the public (that will be part of the conditions of sale and will also come under planning laws etc) they'll just be "owned" by private, instead of the state. The Forestry Commission have hardly been friends with leisure 4x4 owners anyway, so maybe even there may be scope for recreational 4x4 use in the future.
 
If people insisted on UK grown timber the "Forests" would be worth something, be better managed and not considered for selling.
Even if some woodland is sold the buyer will still need planning,in the current financial climate I cant see many taking that risk.Too many brown sites to chose from first with less planning hassles and probably more roads etc around them.
 
ouu... so does this mean i might get a cheap bit of woodland to make an off roading site in :p sounds good
 
There's plenty of woodland for sale, if you wanted to buy some. Setting up a P&P business would be a little more complex, but you could do low-key stuff if you wanted to.
 
lol, yeh, i was at a private P&P site at a farm on Sunday which was in a wood... awesome day, alas, this thing called money prevents me from even entertaining the idea of buying tyres, let alone a wood :(
 
I'd be interested for future development for myself, certainly not a 4x4 track, but a home. Looked into a self sustaining building before but the land prices just killed the idea, maybe they would drop a tad...
 
There's very few things you can do with a forest, without changing the planning use on the land (which is difficult, but does occasionally happen). Basically, you'll get a licence to fell a proportion of the trees, which can be sold as timber but the forest needs restocking. This might be naturally done, in which case costs would be low. Also bear in mind, hardwood marketing is very variable. The main other use would be sporting rights - but if its previously Forestry Commission area, then its likely a condition of public access is there, meaning that you can't do certain other activities.

The 4x4 angle is interesting - at a low usage, I think its less than 12 days per year, you don't need permission. More than that, and you'd need planning permission for change of use (probably say no), environmental impact assessment (won't be great), etc etc. Also don't forget things like public liability insurance, etc.
 
The 4x4 angle is interesting - at a low usage, I think its less than 12 days per year, you don't need permission. More than that, and you'd need planning permission for change of use (probably say no), environmental impact assessment (won't be great), etc etc. Also don't forget things like public liability insurance, etc.

So you could build a massive 4x4 setup and use it once a month

Or... you could section the forest up, setup multiple separate courses and hold them every few weeks, then maybe open them all up together once a year... :)
 
Its unlikely to work out financially, although its marginal:

INCOME
50 cars x £25 entry fee x 12 months/year = £15,000

COSTS
a forest big enough is probably going to cost £100,000-£120,000, so its mortgage on the land will be approx £450/month
mortgage = £5400
public liability insurance = £6000 (vague estimate)
marketing = £1000
other costs = £1000
TOTAL = £13,400

So that's £1600/year profit. Not a lot really. Also bear in mind that you'd need to fill them 50 places. Look at practical examples - only well established sites get those kinds of numbers already, a new startup will need time to build up. Also location is important - somewhere out in a rural area will mean that people will need to travel larger distances, nearer towns/cities would be a better bet. I reckon a lot of those Forestry Commission forests for sale will be somewhat remote.

You couldn't section the forest up and operate multiple courses to get around the regs.
 
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