To date much of LlyG policy work has been reactive – we provide answers from community woodland persepective to questions asked by policy makers. If we had a clear statement of how the forests could serve the needs of the people of Wales – we would be in a better position to be pro-active and ask for help to make this happen. It is a time of flux in Welsh Government – there are new legislative powers, discussion of possible mergers of FCW, CCW and EA, disquiet with sales of public forests leaking over the border from England and a new government. At our AGM in March the membership asked LlyG officers to represent the needs of community woodland users in Wales through a manifesto. There is probably no better time for Llais y Goedwig to present it’s own manifesto to revitalise the link between the people and forests of Wales.
Work to date
Twelve people came to the inaugral meeting of the LlyG Policy working group on the 21 July to work on the Manifesto (six people sent apologies). A lot was discussed and a good start was made – you can download the minutes of the meeting below – but there is still lots of work to do on the Manifesto.
Ideas from first policy meeting
Things now need to develop pretty quickly as we are hoping to be able to meet with the Minister in the next couple of months.
