Commons Bill [HL]

I shall speak to Amendment No. 154, the second amendment listed in this group. It relates to subsection (3)(e) and concerns removing unlawful boundaries and other encroachments. It would be helpful if ““unlawful boundaries”” were defined by the appropriate national authority in regulations. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that boundaries are properly defined by the Secretary of State and the Minister in the National Assembly for Wales, that those boundaries are agreed with the specific commons associations and, indeed, with owners, who have to maintain and establish those boundaries. That would tighten things up considerably where there may be disagreement about whether a boundary was unlawful. So I hope that the amendment is helpful in that respect. Amendment No. 161 should mean that commons associations and owners receive a fair share of the grant aid. It is extremely constructive. On the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Williams, about the number of police cars in Radnorshire, without diverting the Committee’s attention too much, I suspect that if we have an all-Wales police service, we will have only one.