Clause 16

Commons Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:45 pm on 25 April 2006.

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Deregistration and exchange: applications

Photo of Paddy Tipping Paddy Tipping PPS (Rt Hon Jack Straw, Secretary of State), Foreign & Commonwealth Office

I beg to move amendment No. 32, in page 8, line 32, leave out subsection (2).

Photo of Anne Begg Anne Begg Labour, Aberdeen South

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments:

No. 71, in clause 16, page 8, line 33, at end insert—

‘(2A) If an application for release land of not more than200 square metres is made less than 10 years after an application has been granted for the release of other land within a distance of 50 metres of it, then, regardless of any change of ownership that may have occurred during that period, the application must include a proposal under subsection (3).'.

No. 33, in clause 16, page 8, line 37, leave out subsection (4).

No. 72, in clause 16, page 8, line 41, after ‘green', insert

‘or already be any other public open space;

(aa) the replacement land is not less in area and is equally advantageous to the persons (if any) entitled to rights of common or other rights, and to the public;'.

No. 70, in clause 16, page 9, line 6, at end insert—

‘(e) whether the alternative land is no less in area and equally advantageous as the land taken'.

Photo of Paddy Tipping Paddy Tipping PPS (Rt Hon Jack Straw, Secretary of State), Foreign & Commonwealth Office

I shall use my time constructively. Clause 16 deals with the deregistration and exchange of common land. Amendment No. 32, in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud, and the other amendments all reflect the concern of the Committee that pieces of land of less than 200 sq m may not be properly protected.

The clause gives a permissive power of replacement, but under the amendments, when an exchange of land is to take place, whatever its size, new common land should be put in place. My feeling—I am delighted that it is shared by other members of the Committee—is that common land is mostly not large areas of open countryside but small, fragmented spaces. If land of  less than 200 sq m is not replaced, we will see the gradual eating away of commons. That is the purpose of the amendments. I hope that the Minister will consider them.

Photo of David Drew David Drew Labour, Stroud

My hon. Friend, in sharing the amendments with me, has given me even less time to speak to them than he had. I shall be commendably brief.

Amendments Nos. 71, 72 and 70, in which mine is the lead name, are complementary to my hon. Friend’s inasmuch as they seek to clarify which bits of land may be brought forward for exchange. I shall deal with each amendment in turn; they seek to stiffen the resolve of those who wish to see in the Bill some protection for smaller pieces of land.

Amendment No. 71 would prevent the nibbling away of pieces of land. Areas of less than 200 sq m should not be taken without replacement.

It being One o'clock,The Chairmanadjourned the Committee without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.

Adjourned till this day at Four o'clock.