Letter: Cllr Harwood is Mistaken

Published on: 24 Dec, 2021
Updated on: 24 Dec, 2021

From: Linda Parker Picken

In response to: Dragon Interview – Jan Harwood’s Right of Reply

Cllr Jan Harwood’s [Con, Merrow] insistence on being pro-housing and that “Guildford has got away with a housing number that’s lower than it really ought to be” are terrifying, given that he had the Climate Change portfolio prior to his defection to the Tories, authors of the hated Local Plan.

How can concreting over acres of previously green belt land be good for reversing climate change? And all GBC councillors must be aware that the ONS has acknowledged that their data, used in calculating housing targets, was totally flawed. So contrary to Mr Harwood’s assertion, the housing number was much higher than it really ought to have been.

And I wonder where he got his information on our local forests from? It’s true that Surrey is the most densely wooded county in England, with more than one-fifth of its land area covered by trees. But the UK is among the lowest forested countries in Europe.

Editor’s note: The following extract is from the House of Lords European Union Committee, Sub-Committee D (Environment and Agriculture)

Supplementary Memorandum: EU Woodland Forestry and woodland statistics

Figures used in this paper for comparison with other European and global forest resources are
drawn from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) Global Forest
Resource Assessment 2005 and earlier UNFAO reports.

• The UK is one of the least wooded areas of Europe, with just 11.7 per cent woodland cover compared to around 37 per cent for EU – 27 (44 per cent for Europe as a whole).

• France and Greece have more than double the woodland cover of the UK; Spain more than three times.

(Source: https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/documents/upload/wtd10.pdf) Other online sources vary but show a similar picture.

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