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Dear
Sirs,
In March 1999, the Marches Greenwood Network instigated and organised a "Greenwood trades convention" in Herefordshire. This was designed to open up the debate amongst ( and about) green wood trades. Included in this was the question of definition of "greenwood". This seemed to relate as much to "green" as unseasoned. Contemporary versus traditional did not seem to be an issue either, as no-one saw the greenwood trades as "UK Heritage P. L. C. and everyone felt that contemporary skills were vital to the continuation and development of a healthy industry. This brought the focus round to the word "Industry". In order for there to be an ‘industry’, in the political sense of the word, there must be industry standards, a representative body, training initiatives etc, etc.. Various regional and local groups have met these needs, in a limited form. Organisations like the Wessex Coppice Group, the Greenwood Trust, The Association of Pole Lathe Turners and many others have done much valuable work in research, training, promotion and the like: but without national standards and mainstream representation the greenwood trades will remain marginal in the extreme. Money, of course is the key in this issue. Without some form of nationally recognised qualification to be gained, it is (and we speak from experience here!) extremely difficult to attract funding to train new entrants to the industry. It is also very hard for a practitioner to "take on a lad" and find enough time to train him, whilst earning enough money to pay himself, run his business and pay the sort of training wages that other forms of employment can offer. In response to this, on the following day, The Forestry and Arboriculture Safety and Training Council (FASTCO) hosted a meeting at the same venue as the convention. Here representatives from various greenwood trades, basket-makers and straw-workers, met to discuss the formation of a working group to develop national standards, as a pre-cursor to the formation of a national qualification. A broad based group came forward, with the necessary energy to take the issue on. Following consultation with various organisations, and a meeting with the National Proficiency Test Council, the working group is currently discussing how to identify ‘industry leaders’ and if FASTCO should become a National Training Organisation. Once an industry framework is developed we will be in a much better position to influence strategic decision making, through regional assemblies and national policy makers. There are currently three separate consultation processes for strategic forestry policy, in England, Scotland and Wales. I have been invited to contribute to this process in Wales, as a greenwood worker (in consultation with everyone I can ask). I hope someone out there is stating the case for greenwood workers in England and Scotland. One of the other issues, which was raised at the conference and at some of the subsequent meetings, is that of associated planning consents and approvals. In my opinion there is little point in people lobbying forestry strategists about this subject, other to ensure that forestry policy does not have a negative impact on the development rights of forestry workers. It is probably better to focus this lobbying on the planning authorities who have the power to make changes or set the precedents required. This letter was written by Maura
King in consultation with |
