Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 127:"Page 14, line 22, leave out ““substantial support”” and insert ““majority support from the local community””" The noble Duke said: I hope the Committee will excuse me for returning to this problem which we considered at the start of yesterday, when we dealt with the registration of greens under Clause 14 and Amendment No. 47. Clause 26 deals with the establishment of commons associations. Subsection (4) states:"““The . . . national authority may not make the proposed order””," without regard to paragraphs (a) and (b), and—in line 22—unless,"““it is satisfied that there is substantial support for the making of the order””." We wish to test the intention of the Government and what they consider to be support and from whom they would like it to come. We require some explanation of what is considered to be substantial support. What criteria will be used by the national authority to determine what is substantial, and, for example, will all commons rights holders and the landowner have to agree or a set percentage of those with rights? Will the local authority have to support the idea as well? Can the Minister confirm that if there were a poor or even no response to a local inquiry, as laid out in subsection (4)(b), would that be assumed to equate to support for an association, although I doubt that it could be considered substantial? We would like to see great clarity on this issue on the face of the Bill. I beg to move.