The Bill is an opportunity for us to consider our past and our future. In many respects, we are trying to protect our past and heritage by protecting our natural landscape and our biodiversity. We are trying to recognise that there is a great danger that much that we have that is specific, precious and unique to this island could be lost unless we take responsibility.

At the same time, however, the clause seems to bring together that strange past of an England of horse and carts with today. We are trying to prevent the loss of biodiversity caused by our modern lifestyle, but we are not protecting it from one of the greatest causes of damage: the motor vehicle. We are not trying to limit access to the countryside.

I moved to Wales 30-odd years ago when my husband, who is an ecologist, became the first warden of what was then a local nature reserve but is now a national nature reserve and a European site of special nature conservation. We spent much of those early years battling against trail bikers on the reserve who carved up a precious and fragile landscape. Much as the hon. Member for Bassetlaw described, a white van would arrive and out would come the trail bikes, many of them unlicensed and uninsured, and off the bikers would go across the reserve.

In the Bill we are looking for sustainability, but we cannot sustain what is happening at the moment. We have tighter and tighter legislation and management of traffic on our roads, so many people are seeking their thrills and spills with their motor vehicles by going off road. They are carving up the countryside with their trail bikes, Land Rovers and so on to get the excitement that, thanks to speed cameras, they are no longer allowed to get by speeding along motorways.

We have said that the Bill must be cost-neutral and we are seeking to achieve that. However, in many local authorities the cost of examining applications for upgrading to BOATs is tremendous. The hon. Member for Bassetlaw described the number of applications in his constituency and the green lanes coalition said that many local authorities must consider a huge number of applications. That will not be cost-neutral. Like other hon. Members, I ask the Minister to explain how we can protect biodiversity, as well as those habitats that in other parts of the Bill we have clearly signalled our intention to protect, unless   we tighten up and include in applications for upgrading to BOATs other areas and other issues, including biodiversity and the impact on it.