Commons Bill [HL]

My Lords, I want very strongly to support what my noble friend Lord Inglewood has said in moving this amendment. I was equally struck by a letter I have had from the Federation of Cumbria Commoners, who are people who are concerned with commons, many of which were in the constituency I had the honour to serve in the other place. They tell me:"““The Federation (which represents over 500 commoners in Cumbria and Lancashire) is firmly of the view that an amendment such as this””—" they are talking about my noble friend’s amendment—"““is essential if the almost universally desired aim of retaining the local link between rights and the management of a common is to be achieved””." Where there appears to be very strong support for a change in the proposed legislation, on which my noble friend Lord Inglewood put his finger, we ought seriously to consider the point that he made. The Bill in its present form will result in an acceleration of the rate at which the number of rights that are available for use become eroded, leading eventually to a loss of the critical mass which is essential for a grazed common to function. I keep hearing the Minister talk about the problems of over-grazing. I should have thought that it was possible to deal quite simply with the problems of over-grazing. Years ago I instigated the less favoured area scheme which affects a great many commons, particularly in the Lake District. Virtually the whole of the Lake District National Park, which comprises a huge sea of common land, comes within the less favoured area scheme. I should have thought it would be perfectly possible to deal with over-grazing under a scheme such as the less favoured area scheme. The amendment that my noble friend moved constitutes a ““fair and workable solution””, in the words of the Cumbria Commoners. I hope that the Minister will give close and sympathetic attention to the amendment as I believe that it would do a good deal to stop a lot of common land in this country going to rack and ruin in the future. I shall not enter a discussion about the future economics of upland farming but the prospects are pretty dim. We need to ensure that commons are farmed as efficiently as possible without over-grazing but avoiding the other serious problem of under-grazing. Years ago I remember going to Northern Ireland and being shown land that was no longer farmed. There was, and still is, relatively little land in this country which is not looked after in one way or another. I hope that we shall not see the ravages of under-grazing, which this amendment would help us avoid, because nothing looks more awful than land which has gone out of use and is becoming an upland wilderness.