Clause 42
Commons Bill [Lords]
2:00 pm
Jim Knight (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)
Clause 42, as a whole, applies to land covered by an existing management scheme under either the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866 or the Commons Act 1899. Where the terms of such a scheme prohibit works without any scope for any person to consent to them, the clause allows such works if they receive consent under clause 38. Where such a scheme provides that works are permissible with the consent of the national authority, consent has to be given under the criteria set out in clause 38. These measures are designed to increase flexibility while improving consistency.
I shall resist my hon. Friend’s amendment because it would be a retrograde step. The whole point of subsection (3) is to avoid an absolute ban under an existing scheme on works on a common that would be beneficial, for example, by helping visitors to enjoy the common. This is not a matter of covering scheme commons with major new developments or removing people’s access rights. Rather, it is a matter of having the ability to do something if it is appropriate for the land, taking into the account all the checks and balances that the consenting scheme system involves and all the views expressed to the national authority on the subject. We do not want to shut down that new flexibility and I hope that my hon. Friend will not seek to press his amendment to a Division.