Clause 31
Commons Bill [Lords]
7:00 pm
Dan Rogerson (Shadow Minister, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; North Cornwall, Liberal Democrat)
Our sitting has been long and I shall attempt to be brief.
I rise to support the thinking behind the amendment. The example of Bodmin moor has been raised before and I raise it again. It covers a large area of my constituency and of the neighbouring constituency of South-East Cornwall. It is not a common, but a patchwork of many rural communities. Around 17 parishes would be affected so a large number of people would want to be involved. The more flexibility there is for voluntary associations to act within a statutory association or in concert with a statutory association, the more effectively the Bill will function.
I shall be interested to hear what the Minister has to say about provision for small areas of common land that may be near a major area of common landwhere commoners and landowners want to form an association and whether a nearby area might be able to have some form of relationship with the larger statutory association to gain access to some of the provisions in the Bill.