Commons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 49:"Page 22, line 6, at end insert—" ““(c)   land not falling within paragraph (a) or (b) which is in the New Forest and is subject to rights of common”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, we come to a group in which there are a number of government amendments and two opposition amendments, Amendments Nos. 50 and 52. If it is agreeable to the House, I will speak to the government amendments at this stage and come back on the other amendments, which are important. Government Amendments Nos. 49 and 81 are made at the request of the authorities in the New Forest. Controls on certain limited works in the Forest are contained in local legislation. As these works are dealt with in local Acts, they will be exempt from the requirement for consent under Section 194. However, for any works in the New Forest that are not permitted by local Acts, Section 194 applies at present as for any other land, subject to rights of common. The controls in Clause 38 apply only to registered common land and to certain land exempt from registration. As originally drafted, therefore, Clause 38 would not apply in the New Forest. Although we were initially led to believe that the authorities in the New Forest were content with that, after further consideration the Verderers of the New Forest have asked that the safety net provided by Section 194 should be reinstated by applying Clause 38 to the Forest in the same way. Amendment No. 49 does that, and Amendment No. 81 ensures that the controls apply to National Trust land in the New Forest. I shall deal with government Amendments Nos. 51 and 82 next. At the request of the Quarry Products Association, we propose to extend slightly the exemption from the requirement for consent to mineral workings that have planning permission at the time that the Bill becomes law. Amendment No. 82 provides that the exemption will also apply where an existing permission is varied by an extension of the time limit to which the permission is subject. Because it is a transitional measure, we have also moved it into Schedule 3. That necessitates the removal of Clause 38(6)(e), which is achieved via Amendment No. 51. In agreeing to that change, we have not resiled from the basic principle that new minerals workings that prevent or impede access on common land should in future require the consent of the national authority under Clause 38. But we recognise that there may be circumstances in which the time for the completion of works relating to an existing planning permission may be varied, and we accept that imposing the need for an additional consent at that point would not be appropriate. We also believe it is in the interests of common land that such existing permissions, which I understand often contain provisions for the restoration of the land, should be able to be completed where the change relates solely to the time taken for completion of the development. Government Amendments Nos. 53 and 54 are technical amendments to Clause 38(8) to ensure that paragraph (b) does not exempt works from the controls in a way that was not intended. The amendments ensure that the exemption under Clause 38(6)(b) applies only where the enactment referred to applies generally to common land, and not to a specific common. It ensures there is no overlap or confusion with the exemption in Clause 38(6)(a), which applies to specific commons. Government Amendment No. 73 is a consequential amendment to make Clause 51 consistent with Clause 38. I beg to move.