Clause 55 - Notices and signs relating to SSSIs
Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill
6:45 pm
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire, Liberal Democrat)
I was going to raise the issue of common land anyway. I may have misheard the Minister, but did he say that an SSSI may consist of many hundreds of commons? I would dispute that. The land may be grazed by hundreds of commoners—[Interruption.] We might debate that. I cannot think of anything worse than having the whole of the English countryside covered with signs from English Nature—or Natural England. Will Natural England have to get permission under the Law of Property Acts to erect a sign on a common—because anyone else would have to do that—or will it have Crown immunity in this instance?