I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
The Bill will provide for the better management of common land in England and Wales. It will ensure that some of our most valued uplands, open spaces and conservation sites remain effectively protected and recorded, and overhauls the existing patchwork of antiquated controls to bring them up to 21st century standards of better regulation. I know that the general principles behind the Bill have been widely welcomed, and I pay tribute to the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for South Dorset (Jim Knight), who has done a great deal of work on the Bill.
At the core of the Bill are more than 2,000 square miles of registered common land in England and Wales, representing around 4 per cent. of our land area. Those places are fundamental to the character of our countryside. Some people might have in mind the ponies of Dartmoor, walkers will think of the high fells of the lake district, and families perhaps cherish the local common for games and walks on a Sunday afternoon. All these places are common land, and the Bill seeks to ensure that such places will be properly protected and managed for future generations. The Government have already undertaken limited legislation for common land in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, providing a general public right of access to commons. This Bill deals with other substantive issues on common land, such as their management and protection.
It might be helpful to explain what is meant by the term ““common land””. There is a popular misconception that common land is land owned by all of us, or even by no one—that it is, in effect, a public resource. It is not quite that simple. All common land is owned by someone, often a private landowner. Since time immemorial, however, common land has been subject to rights for certain people other than the landowner to use the land for their own benefit—for example, to graze livestock or take fallen wood for fuel. It is those rights over another person’s land that make common land special.
Common land is important for many reasons. I have already spoken of the tremendous recreational resource that it provides. It also remains a fundamental part of the agricultural economy for many upland farmers, for whom commoning has been a way of life for generations. However, common land is also a crucial reservoir of biodiversity. Much of it has never been improved or enclosed, so many commons are havens for wildlife, while the absence of ploughing leaves many prehistoric remains intact.
Remarkably, around half the common land in England is designated as a site of special scientific interest. The wealth of information that we now have about both commons and SSSIs, and the action that we are taking to improve their condition, is vital to our overall work on biodiversity. We need to take action to protect biodiversity across the whole of the countryside, as well as in our most special and valuable sites.
Commons Bill [Lords]
Proceeding contribution from
Elliot Morley
(Labour)
in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 18 April 2006.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Commons Bill [HL].
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
445 c39-40 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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2024-04-16 20:26:02 +0100
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