Clause 45
Commons Bill [Lords]
2:15 pm
Jim Knight (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)
The amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud and the hon. Member for North Cornwall would go further than clause 45 permits and impose a duty on local authorities to take action. As my hon. Friend said, we recently discussed the issue of duties and powers, and I shall not dwell on it. Authorities should retain the discretion to act, and they should be responsive to local priorities and electors.
Moreover, it would be quite wrong to compel authorities to act in every case regardless of the circumstances. An area of public land might be of little public value, remote from any public access, and of no use to agriculture, and the threat might be trivial or ephemeral, but a duty would require the local authority to take up the cudgels just the same as if there were a rave on the village green.
I accept my hon. Friend’s admonition that given the discretion to act, local authorities too often do not act all. That point has been made to me by others, and I agree with him that that is sometimes unsatisfactory. However, we hope to do two things that I believe might help. First, we will work with local authorities and the Local Government Association to improve understanding of the legislation and the authorities’ role in implementing it. That will include the publication of guidance to authorities, and we will consult on what that guidance might say about authorities’ use of the powers under the clause.
Secondly, we are considering whether local access forums could advise authorities on taking action under clauses 41 and 45 to promote public access to common land, particularly where public access is currently restricted or excluded. I am sorry to disappoint my hon. Friend again, but I hope that my explanation of where the Government stand on amendments Nos. 82 to 84 is adequate.