North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs to respond to the Confederation of Forest Industries concerns that the Welsh Government’s action plan for 10,000 hectares of new woodland creation by 2020 is unlikely to succeed unless obstacles they have highlighted are resolved.

Raising the matter in the Chamber this week, he said:

“You replied to me by letter on 18 August after I’d written to you about the Confederation of Forest Industries—or ConFor—correspondence on ‘Obstacles to commercial woodland creation and management in Wales and some solutions’. In your reply, you said that your predecessor had replied to the same document in February, which, of course, he had, but they advise that he only replied to one of the points in the document. They did write back but because the election took over they never got a response to that correspondence.

“He said that he’d asked his officials to explore their suggestion that clear advice and guidance be provided to applicants with Natural Resources Wales, but they’ve not heard anything since then. You referred to the action plan for 10,000 hectares of new woodland creation by 2020, but their members have highlighted reasons why this is unlikely to succeed unless the obstacles are resolved, and they’ve yet to receive an answer to their questions on restocking to the Natural Resources Wales board.

“How will you, in a positive mind—because they want to be positive and constructive—engage and help fill in those gaps so that a positive dialogue may go forward to the benefit of all, and particularly the natural environment?”

The Cabinet Secretary, Lesley Griffiths, said “I am concerned to hear that there is some concern from the sector, but I’ll certainly look into it and will be very happy to meet them.”