James Gray MP suggests in his column (Gazette, February 10) that the overwhelming public protest against the Government’s plans to sell off our national woodland is misguided.

Like other writers to this page, we fear for future public access to our woods if these plans go ahead.

On our own doorstep there is an obvious example of what can happen when woods are sold to a private owner. Stanton Park, a 150-acre wood in Stanton St Quintin, formerly held on a long lease by Forestry Enterprises, was recently sold to a private owner, apparently for the rearing and shooting of pheasants.

Before the sale, it was a space where the public could walk freely, but all that now remains of public access is a bridleway, which is a straight path through the wood, bounded on either side by fences topped with barbed wire.

Admittedly, this sale went through under the previous government, but the principle is still the same.

What clear safeguards will be put in place to prevent this happening in other woods throughout the country? We need to know. The headline of Mr Gray’s article was “Opposition to sell off can’t see the wood for the trees”.

More accurately, we can’t see the wood for the fences.

Frank Hughes and Jehanne Le Quesne, Stanton St Quintin.