Clause17
Commons Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Jim Knight (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)
I think that in my response on the previous clauseI might have given the impression—in fact, explicitlysaid—that the commons registration authority would deal withmatters under clause 16, but it is, of course, the national authoritythat will do so, as is the case for clause17.
I hope that itwill be some reassurance to the hon. Member for Brecon and Radnorshirethat precisely the sort of considerations that he is talking about willbe taken into account by the national authority when determining anapplication for exchange under clause 16. As we saw in discussion onamendments to that clause—the hon. Gentleman mentioned clause16(6)—the national authority must have regard to various factorswhen determining an application. As he says, those factors include theinterests of commoners, so where an exchange relates to common landthat remains in agricultural use, the national authority will look verycarefully at whether the replacement land provides an adequatesubstitute for the commoners.
The hon. Gentleman’spoint about the road is important; it would be absurd if the locationof the replacement land meant shepherding sheep across a busy mainroad, but—I would not want to disappoint my hon. Friend theMember for Sherwood by failing to use a conjunction after being nice tosomeone—we need to retain some flexibility in determiningexchange applications.
For example, a piece ofreplacement land may be highly advantageous to the community as a placefor recreation, or may have the potential for promoting biodiversity,but because the replacement land was some distance from the common, itwould not be accessible to a registered holder of rights who, say,wanted to graziers two geese, even though those rights had not beenexercised since before the war. In those circumstances, it would beplain silly to refuse the application for the sake of those two geese.In short, we resist the amendment, but I offer the hon. Member forBrecon and Radnorshire the assurance that its purpose will be a coreconsideration for the nationalauthority.