Clause 2 - General Purpose
Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill
4:00 pm
James Paice (Shadow Minister (Agriculture), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
We ought to put it on record that a large amount of England has not yet been opened up under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, and nobody has had that access for more than nine months. It is terribly early to rush to judgment about the potential conflict between access and the environment. I accept that those are the presumptions that English Nature has made, but we should wait a bit longer before we immediately assume that there is no clash.