The proposals – sneaked out just before the Whitsun bank holiday but which have only just come to light – will mean closing office centres as wide apart as Wendover Woods in Buckinghamshire to Rothbury Forest in Northumberland. Delamere Forest, Cheshire’s largest woodland, will also lose an office; staff will be asked to “hot desk” instead. Other offices to be closed include Clifton Moor, North Yorkshire; Bourne Woods, Lincolnshire; Silverstone, Northamptonshire; Bentley, Hampshire; and Bellever Forest, which overlooks the River Dart in Devon.
A Forestry Commission report written by chief executive Simon Hodgson admits that at least 200-250 jobs will go with disproportionate redundancies among men and women part-time workers and employees over the age of 40. The internal document says staff should agree to work part-time instead of full-time and agree to “voluntary” downgrading of posts to save money. It implies recruiting more volunteers to replace them will be dressed up as part of the government’s much-criticised “Big Society” pledge.
The cuts will mean staff reductions at 19 other offices equivalent to 25 per cent of the workforce of just over 1,000. Rural areas, where unemployment is already high, will be badly hit.
Unions say redundancies could reach as many as 400 by 2015 as the proposed cuts will not cover all the required savings. There are suggestions that wildlife conservation budgets will also be cut and more trees will be damaged by deer because there won’t be enough staff to protect them.
The Public and Commercial Services union has condemned the move – which is in advance of a promised review of the Forestry Commission. An interim report is due in August with a final report next April.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Ministers made much of the fact that they listened when half a million people signed a petition against their planned sell-off of our public forests. But axing this many staff will leave the Forestry Commission unable to maintain the excellent public services our members provide which are so highly regarded by the public.”
