When one of your own senior MPs describes a key policy as “botched” even this Coalition government, so single-minded and deaf to criticism, should think twice.

The House of Commons Public Administration Committee report into the handling of the government’s abolition of quangos is damning. It is clear that ideology, not practicality, drove the process. The MPs say it’s not even going to save any money.

Bernard Jenkin MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “The whole process was rushed and poorly handled and should have been thought through a lot more. This was a fantastic opportunity to help build the Big Society and save money at the same time, but it has been botched.”

The South West is a good example of how this will impact on people locally. The abolition of the Regional Development Agency (RDA) removes a proven asset to the South West economy which has brought in millions of pounds in investment. Just when we need strategic action in these tough times the region has been cut adrift.

Setting up the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) which are meant to replace some of the work of the RDA has been a shambles. In fact, 70% of the South West is not covered by an LEP. The two so far proposed, Cornwall and West of England, have excluded significant economic interests such as the workforce, unions and the voluntary sector, which had a voice and strong contribution on the former RDA.

The government therefore had to transfer the management of its key European development funds from the regional bodies. But this has been another botched process. They tried to push responsibility to a lead local authority, but in the words of the government department: “There has been no appetite from individual local authorities for taking on this role.” The government has looked to LEPs to take the lead but their boundaries don’t fit with the EU regional programmes. “The department also concluded that there was little to be gained by inviting one of its agencies to take on the administration.”So to avoid losing EU regional funding, new regional bodies are to be created but under the direct control of the Government, rather than based in the region. To maintain the pretence of the new ‘localism’ approach the new bodies will adopt the title Local Management Committees.

Also in the box marked “botched” is the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board. That removes a key safeguard for thousands of workers in the region, in an industry notorious for long hours and poor safety record.

Then there are the changes to the Forestry Commission which mean the transfer of powers to Ministers to sell off the country’s forests including the Forest of Dean. This is causing huge uproar in the Forest.

The Coalition’s arrogant actions have been criticised on all sides and now even senior MPs have added their voice. One wonders what it will take to make this government listen.

The Forest of Dean is a unique place. A community live and work in a forest. It has few statutory protections or even designated public footpaths. Its ancient customs and rights are largely unwritten and protected only by the remit of its public ownership and stewardship of the Forestry Commission.

The Forestry Commission looks after a million hectares of land, and sustainably harvests 5 million tonnes of wood every year from Britain’s public forests (just under half of domestic production). The income from timber helps offset the costs of managing the forests in our care.  No wonder it’s seen as ripe for privatisation.  The 38 degrees website has produced a list of them on Google Maps.

Forest privatisation is the Coalition’s intention in the Public Bodies Bill going through Parliament now. We are asked to trust in a White Paper that will set out a range of options for the future of the forests. None of them will adequately safeguard the Forest of Dean as it is now. All of them signal the end of publicly owned and managed forests.

It will be 50 ways to leave your lover when we haven’t even fallen out! ‘None of the above’ will not be on the list and such an option will only be achieved by amending the Public Bodies Bill now.

The Government’s approach is based upon the premise that public ownership of our woodlands is bad – despite all the evidence to the contrary.

It remains unclear how the government will determine which options for which forests will be applied. The break-up of the national estate will mean that the more profitable forests will be sold leaving the rest even more dependent upon subsidy or even more at risk from measures to cut costs.

Even Mark Harper realises that talking about privatising the Forest is political suicide so instead we are presented with the option of a transfer to a community interest body or a ‘not-for-profit’ business. But these will still have to cover their costs. Not-for-profit is also Not-for-loss. The only way to balance the books will be more commercial activities, big hikes in fees and charges alongside cuts in woodland management.

Unions at the Forestry Commission (Unite, PCS, Prospect and the GMB), representing its 3,240 employees in all grades, are fundamentally opposed to the Government’s plans. Under this Government, there has been a cynical distortion of social enterprise and co-operative values to privatise public services. Once transferred out of public ownership there is no way back. As we are witnessing in the NHS, many of these bodies seem set-up to fail. When they do, the next inevitable step is into corporate ownership.

In the Forest of Dean we have witnessed Conservative statements that would make George Orwell proud. Tory Council leader, Peter Amos said: “It doesn’t matter who owns it as long as it stays in public ownership.” The MP says that the Government has no plans to sell-off the forest but simply change its ownership!

The people of the Forest of Dean want to keep it that way.

Lots of work has been done in starting to figure out the impact on the birds and marine life, the sediment, the port and the economy. Trade unions have their concerns about a bloody big dam but the work has drawn out alternative ways to generate power from the second highest tidal range in the world. This should not be put on hold for the next decade while we build new nuclear and gas stations.

Any of the ideas would create thousands of jobs in construction and some seem to offer less damage to the estuary environment.

As the previous Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy commented:

The tides of the Severn Estuary (up to 14 metres) are among the highest in the world. The potential of Severn tidal power is being investigated through the cross-Government Severn Tidal Power Feasibility Study. The study is considering a number of possible scheme options to generate electricity from the tides of the Estuary, ranging from a £21 billion barrage between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare that could produce 5% of UK electricity, to a £2.3 billion 625 MW option supplying around 1% of electricity.

Yet the new government has not even bothered to summon the wide range of partners in Wales and the South West who have been meeting to consider the ideas. Business groups in South Wales have described the Government’s decision to axe plans for a tidal barrage in the Severn Estuary as a huge blow to the economy.

Without such coordination and broad support how can we give confidence to potential investors and developers? How will we coordinate the other renewable energy initiatives in the Bristol Channel such as the Atlantic Array wind farm that needs new port facilities if local jobs are to be created or the wave hub who’s main sponsor (the South West RDA is being abolished).

Perhaps we shouldn’t worry too much that the Local Enterprise Partnerships that will partly replace RDAs won’t have a statutory obligation to promote sustainable development as RDAs do. The process of setting them up is such a mess and most of the Severn Estuary looks set to be a LEP-free zone. Let’s not lecture the Chinese over their need to develop low carbon energy when we fail to make the most of our own natural power sources.