Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

My Lords, I greatly welcome the Bill. I am sure that the independent integrated agency, Natural England, bringing together, as it does, the functions of English Nature and some of the functions of the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service, will be better placed than the previous bodies to have care for conserving, enhancing and managing England’s natural environment for the benefit of current and future generations. It is hoped and expected that Natural England will be a powerful organisation and will strongly champion the cause of access and recreation, alongside its work in promoting nature conservation, protecting biodiversity and conserving and enhancing the landscape. I strongly support the representations of the Ramblers’ Association, among others, in stressing the importance of access and recreation in the countryside and wishing these aspects to have equal weighting with the other purposes of Natural England, as set out in Clause 2. Natural England should be able to exercise significant power to bring to bear on those local authorities that fail in their statutory duties to maintain access on public rights of way, as well as being able to provide incentives for those wishing to improve. Access is fundamental to the social and economic health of rural areas, a fact which was clearly illustrated during the foot and mouth crisis. I hope the Minister will be able to assure the House that the Government recognise the importance of that issue and that, in setting the framework for Natural England, it will be emphasised. I am encouraged in this regard by his announcement earlier that Sir Martin Doughty is the chairman-designate. I am sure that this appointment will be well received. One other aspect of the Bill that I would particularly like to raise, to which a number of noble Lords have already referred, is the vexed issue of the increasing degradation of green lanes. I have received extensive briefing from many organisations in advance of this debate—far too many to mention. I take the points made by the Green Lanes Protection Group particularly seriously, however. Well before it contacted me, I was aware from my own experience of walking in the countryside, and the experience of friends who live in some of the worst affected areas—Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset come most readily to mind—of the exponential growth of motor vehicles using green lanes. These issues were well rehearsed when the Bill was being considered in another place, and I am glad to say that representations to do something about the problem came from across the political spectrum. The Government have addressed this problem in Part 6 of the Bill, the purpose of which is to limit those vehicular rights that can be recorded on English and Welsh local authorities’ definitive maps and statements showing public rights of way. It does this by halting implied creation of rights of way for mechanically propelled vehicles, preventing post-1930 use of a way by a mechanically propelled vehicle giving rise to any future public right of way and, subject to certain exceptions, extinguishing existing public rights of way for mechanically propelled vehicles if those rights of way are not already recorded on the definitive map and statement. That is excellent and very important. There are many who believe that the opportunity should now be taken for the issue of existing rights which are recorded on the map, but are now being abused by ““recreational”” mechanically propelled vehicles, to be revisited on the overriding grounds of environmental considerations. The Minister is, I know, aware of the sensitivity of this subject. The Minister will also be aware that there are now a huge number of claims, mostly very recent, which have been submitted to the relevant authorities. There is every expectation that the claims will continue to multiply even while the Bill is under consideration in your Lordships’ House. It has been suggested that such claims could take up to 20 years to process. It would be a tragedy of the greatest proportions, and the damage to the environment would be most severe—to say nothing of the shattering of the peace and quiet of the countryside and the danger to residents and visitors alike—if the use of these green lanes by motorised vehicles is allowed to continue until such claims are heard. They are claims, nothing more. Many are completely preposterous. It is not a matter of human rights, or retrospection. It is certainly not a matter of access. It is, however, a matter of the practice, if not intent, of elevating one use of a byway above all others, to their effective exclusion. Walkers cannot walk, horse riders cannot ride and people and wildlife alike are endangered by the use of 4x4s, motorbikes, quad bikes and the like on green lanes. The lanes are churned up and ruined, often irreparably. That that should be allowed to happen in national parks, SSSIs, AONBs and so on is incomprehensible to most people, and the problem worsens daily. It is imperative that the provisions come into force at the earliest possible moment, ideally the date of the Bill’s publication. If that is not possible, surely it is not asking too much for the enactment of the legislation to coincide with its Royal Assent. I hope that the Minister will be able to reassure the House on that point when he shortly reveals the text of the amendments promised in the debate in the other place.