NEWS

Changes needed to Forestry Bill
Steven Moore

The Forestry Bill, which received its second reading in the Assembly last week, began its Committee Stage with officials being warned they face a hard time getting it through the process unless changes are made.
The Stormont Agriculture Committee expressed a number of concerns on Tuesday when Forest Service Chief Executive David Small and Woodland Development director Stuart Morwood presented an overview of the Bill.
In particular, MLAs were critical of the measures being sought that would allow the service to compulsorily purchase land that it deemed necessary to provide access to either mature woodland or tourism projects.
The Bill seeks to allow better public access to the province's woodlands and to encourage revenue generating tourism, commercial and renewable energy uses of the Forest Service's estate.
The committee members, while expressing the view that the Bill did not go far enough in respect of making best use of the land available, took exception to a number of powers being sought, including the right to enter land adjacent to woodlands to cull wildlife - with the bill then being passed on to the landowner.
Officials also came in for criticism for having failed to reflect earlier reservations expressed by the committee in the drafting of the Bill.


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September 25th 2009
September 18th 2009