his constituency, by the local press and by politicians with connections to the Forest of Dean, most notably Baroness Royall, Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords. She described Mark Harper as 'fundamentally wrong' and his views on the subject as 'utter nonsense'. Concern within the local community resulted in a number of Forest of Dean organisations joining to form an alliance, adopting 'Hands off our Forest' (HOOF) as its name. Aims and strategy HOOF's website describes its aim as being 'to keep the Forest [of Dean] as it is – publicly owned and publicly run by the Forestry Commission' and its strategy as being 'that government should respect the 1981 Act regarding the Forest of Dean and give it, and the other Heritage Forests, full protection from disposal'. Public consultation On 27 January 2011, the Government published a consultation document. Despite the Public Bodies Bill having been in the House of Lords for three months, this made it clear for the first time that the Government was not planning, or no longer planned, to sell the majority of the Forest of Dean and instead planned to "transfer the ownership or management of the large heritage sites on the public forest estate to a charity or charities, via a trust arrangement or lease.........at no cost to the new owner". This was claimed as a victory by some campaigners, although HOOF rejected the handover plan, deciding to stick to its aim of gaining an exemption for the Forest of Dean from the Public Bodies Bill; thus ensuring it stayed in public ownership and protected from any future sale or transfer. Having waited for the consultation document to be published, Mark Harper held a public meeting in Coleford, on 4 February. Despite being given only 2 days notice, 400 people turned up, but the venue chosen could only accommodate around 150 and the rest had to stay outside. He had to be rescued by police. Campaign victory The campaign celebrated a partial victory on 17 February 2011 when, speaking in the House of Commons, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Caroline Spelman, told MPs the government had "got this one wrong". She announced the consultation process had been halted and that the Government would remove the forestry clauses from the Public Bodies Bill. An independent panel would also be set up to consult on the issue of the future