Families struggling with rocketing energy bills are being denied access to cheap firewood in publicly-owned forests, it has emerged.
Usually people can gather wood fuel on the national forest estate under scavenging licences granted by Forestry and Land Scotland.
For a small fee they can collect firewood by hand from a defined section of woodland where fallen timber is available.
But Dalry man Michael Ansell has discovered that Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has stopped issuing licences because of staff shortages.
And he is angry that people facing possible fuel poverty can’t get low-cost wood for the fire – just when they need it most.
Mr Ansell, a former estates manager with Forestry Commission Scotland, told the News: “Firewood may perhaps seem a small thing.
“But for many folk in rural Galloway it’s quite an important part of their fuel resource.
“Energy prices are going through the roof just now and rural areas are being particularly hard hit. Many households here have no mains gas and will not be able to afford electricity rises.
“Alternative sources of fuel therefore are very much needed.”
Mr Ansell, 63, says there is an abundance of usable firewood available in local state-owned forests.
And he urged FLS to get the scavenging scheme back up and running.
He said: “There are tons of firewood lying on the ground from previous storms.
“We have all this huge natural resource but people can’t take advantage of it.
“You could have the whole population of Galloway going out there taking what they need without making much of an impact.
“One way of cutting fuel costs was always to get firewood from the huge public forests. But that has been cut off now. There is so much wood lying about. It’s a resource getting wasted.”
He added: “The reason FLS have suspended the scheme is because they claim they don’t have enough labour.
“I know they have to prioritise things and have to do everything with regard to health and safety.
“Previously they issued firewood scavenging licences to people allowing them to collect supplies of firewood from specific areas by hand. What people need now is access to this stuff when these extra energy costs are coming down the track. It needs sorted out.”
A Forestry and Land spokesperson said: “Our harvesting team is temporarily short-staffed, which we are addressing, but is at the moment primarily focussed on dealing with the damage from Storm Arwen, which is likely going to be made worse by Storm Dudley.
“We appreciate that this is having knock-on effects with some other areas of our work.
“But we are working to remedy that and hope to be able to resume the availably of firewood, where we have it, as soon as possible.”
FLS also stressed that recent storm damage meant members of the public would not be permitted on to many sites for health and safety reasons.
