Language Provision

 

It is FCW policy to conduct as much administration work for the Better Woodlands for Wales (BWW) scheme as possible through our new Grants and Licences Online system (G&L Online). This system is used by FCW appointed management planners to create and submit BWW applications on behalf of woodland owners online. Under the contract management planners have with the FCW at present all information needed to create a BWW management plan is entered to the G&L Online system in English. However, as this system matures, and if resources allow, we will look into the possibility of offering this service with Welsh as an additional option.  

You can receive documentation and communications associated with a BWW application in either Welsh or English. When you have employed an approved management planner you will need to agree with your management planner, before any BWW work has commenced, whether you wish the BWW contract, licences, permissions and administrative communications associated with your application to be conducted in Welsh or English. The management planner must then inform the FCW of this decision. When a final management plan and plan of operations is FCW approved and signed and agreed by all parties then a contract can be issued in either Welsh or English as required. You can make grant claims using forms available in both Welsh and English.

Other services such as felling licences and applications for environmental impact assessments currently provided in paper format in Welsh and English will be made available online in English, and in Welsh, if there is sufficient demand and changes to the G&L Online system are minor to achieve this.

Further development of a full online Welsh language service is dependent on demand for grants and licences services as a whole in Wales. FCW may choose to make publications intended for business use by FCW staff or management planners available only in English. This is because these documents will tend to be of a very specific technical nature and are intended for a small audience.

The Forestry Commission website (www.forestry.gov.uk) continues to provide all the advisory, technical and general information needed by woodland owners and other people involved in woodland management. The FC website is fully accessible in Welsh or English languages for information relating to FCW schemes or UK-wide schemes that operate in Wales.