For the past 12 years, retired builder Mike Kamp has exercised his age-old right to collect firewood from the forest near his home.
But the health and safety axe has finally come down on an 800-year-old tradition which dates back to the Magna Carta.
Forestry chiefs say they have been forced to overrule the charter due to the 'increasing constraints' of modern legislation.
The Magna Carta of 1215 included a Forest Charter which recognised the rights of commoners to get subsistence from common land. They were granted 'estovers' - dead wood - for fuel, to repair their homes, fix tools or make charcoal.
Mr Kamp, 59, uses a wood-burning stove at his cottage near Betwys-y-Coed, North Wales, and enjoys walking through nearby Gwydir Forest. But now he has been told by Forestry Commission Wales that he can no longer buy a licence to forage.
Mr Kamp said: 'They are claiming there are health and safety issues. But people have walked through the woods collecting firewood for hundreds and hundreds of years without too many safety problems.' continues here
But the health and safety axe has finally come down on an 800-year-old tradition which dates back to the Magna Carta.
Forestry chiefs say they have been forced to overrule the charter due to the 'increasing constraints' of modern legislation.
The Magna Carta of 1215 included a Forest Charter which recognised the rights of commoners to get subsistence from common land. They were granted 'estovers' - dead wood - for fuel, to repair their homes, fix tools or make charcoal.
Mr Kamp, 59, uses a wood-burning stove at his cottage near Betwys-y-Coed, North Wales, and enjoys walking through nearby Gwydir Forest. But now he has been told by Forestry Commission Wales that he can no longer buy a licence to forage.
Mr Kamp said: 'They are claiming there are health and safety issues. But people have walked through the woods collecting firewood for hundreds and hundreds of years without too many safety problems.' continues here
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