Feedback on "Have Your Say"

Overview

The Forestry Commission manages the Public Forest Estate (PFE) for the Government and holds it in trust for the nation.  In 2011 the Government signalled an intention to sell off a significant proportion of the PFE and, in response, many community groups and stakeholders campaigned for the PFE to stay in public ownership.  

In recognition of the support from stakeholders and campaign groups, and in response to the direction set within the Government Forestry and Woodland Policy Statement, the Forestry Commission are running a pilot project to trial ways of improving engagement, transparency and accountability in the management of the PFE. 

In the East England Forest District three district initiatives were used to test different techniques supported by the Have Your Say web page.  The webpage aimed to help improve transparency and accountability and inform all stakeholders about opportunities to engage so they could feed into strategic decision making processes on the three test initiatives.

Why your views matter

This questionnaire aims to help evaluate how well the web page and engagement around the three test initiatives has worked.

The three test initiatives were:

• The Open Habitat Plan for Thetford Forest
• OSA: Improving communication about operations to the public
• Forest Resilience

The web page "Have Your Say" was part of a suite of webpages called "Get Involved"

If you have been involved with the any of the three initiatives or used the "Have Your Say" web page your feedback will be valuable in deciding how we develop the engagement methods we have been trialling and continue to improve the way we engage with people on the Public Forest Estate. 

If you require a hard copy of the survey to complete offline or guidance to complete the questionnaire, please contact victoria.tustian@forestry.gsi.gov.uk or call 01223 775102. 

What happens next

This questionnaire will run from the 4th of February to the 29th of May 2015

This pilot has only been run in the East England Forest District.  Lessons learnt will be used to improve the way we engage in the East District and shared with other forest districts.