[Diggers350] Common Land: Latest Tory Land Grab...

[Tony Gosling]

The seven 'pioneer' areas with the deadline of 31 December 2020 are:
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council,
Cornwall Council,
Devon County Council,
Herefordshire District Council,
Hertfordshire County Council,
Kent County Council,
Lancashire County Council.

Minister refuses to extend deadlines for registering common land

https://www.oss.org.uk/minister-refuses-to-extend-deadline-for-registering-common-land/
We are dismayed that environment minister John 
Gardiner has refused to extend the deadline for 
re-registering lost commons beyond the end of December 2020.
The society is concerned that, in seven English 
local authority 
areas<https://www.oss.org.uk/minister-refuses-to-extend-deadline-for-registering-common-land/#fn1>1, 
the deadline for registering lost commons is 31 
December, less than four months away.  The 
research to uncover lost commons requires visits 
to records offices and other archives, which in 
many counties have not been possible since 
mid-March.  In order that unregistered commons 
should not be lost for ever, the society argues 
that the deadline should be extended.

The society sent Lord Gardiner information about 
the record offices in the seven pioneer 
areas.  At the end of August, the archives in 
Cornwall, Hertfordshire and Lancashire were still 
closed. The others will either open in September 
or are already open, but with reduced visiting 
times and capacity, making research difficult and more time-consuming.

In order to extend the deadline, it is necessary 
to amend the end date in the regulations, a 
straightforward process when countless changes 
are being made to legislation to adapt to the 
pandemic.  Lord Gardiner has responded that there 
is no time for this because of the large amount 
of high-priority legislation needed to combat the 
pandemic and exit the European Union, and that in 
any case sufficient time has already been allowed 
for re-registration since the regulations were established in 2014.

Says Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open 
Spaces Society: ‘We have lost nearly one-twelfth 
of the total time for registering commons through 
the closure of record offices.

‘The ability to register of common land is 
important because it entails rescuing commons 
which were wrongly omitted from the registers in 
the first place.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime 
opportunity to put the record straight, and 
enable the lost land to be protected and enjoyed by the public.

‘The government is regrettably selective about 
which deadlines it extends for the pandemic and 
favours those which affect the economy.  It has 
extended time limits for planning permission, 
vehicle tests and filing accounts, among many 
other purposes.  But­notwithstanding the tsunami 
of ‘Coronavirus’ legislation to achieve these 
extensions and for other purposes­the government 
says there is no time and no need to legislate for commons.

‘We shall continue to press the government to 
extend this deadline alongside all the others 
which will be extended to suit the economy.  We 
believe government has got its priorities wrong.’

1.The seven pioneer areas with the deadline of 31 
December 2020 are: Blackburn with Darwen Borough 
Council, Cornwall Council, Devon County Council, 
County of Herefordshire District Council, 
Hertfordshire County Council, Kent County 
Council, Lancashire County 
Council.<https://www.oss.org.uk/minister-refuses-to-extend-deadline-for-registering-common-land/#ref1>
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