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Commons Bill [HL]

Is it possible to disagree only slightly with my noble friend? I want to make a couple of points. As I recall, Amendment No. 85 concerned commons associations and local authorities being able to manage unclaimed common land. While I quite agree with my noble friend about local authorities and the position that they may hold, I am very concerned about the effect of the amendment in relation to national parks, in particular. I say that because local authorities are democratically elected, while large sections—sometimes as much as 50 per cent—of the national parks are nominated either by the Secretary of State or by the First Minister of the National Assembly for Wales. It has been my experience that local authorities are sometimes more responsive, while national parks occasionally own common land with commoners on it exercising their rights. I am anxious that a non-elected body should not farm, for example, a large chunk of the 21,000 hectares or acres in Wales mentioned by my noble friend. I have been corrected. It is 21,000 hectares, which is a lot of land. These matters need to be considered as do, if I am correct in my assumption, the way in which they relate to Amendment No. 85.