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RIDER RIGHTS

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Saving our forests is seeing the wood for the trees

Commons and Waste Lands

193 Rights of the public over commons and waste lands..

It is a pity that this advice was not followed and the commoners were not consulted before any proposals for fencing the common were made on a wider scale.

Says Maureen Comber

Says Maureen Comber (1)Members of the public shall, subject as hereinafter provided, have rights of access for air and exercise to any land which is a metropolitan common within the meaning of the Metropolitan Commons Acts, 1866 to 1898, or manorial waste, or a common, which is wholly or partly situated within [F185an area which immediately before 1st April 1974 was] a borough or urban district, and to any land which at the commencement of this Act is subject to rights of common and to which this section may from time to time be applied in manner hereinafter provided: .


Also from Bilson v SOS 1998, the following:


Section 193 subsection 1 conferred rights of access for air and exercise on the public in respect of very many commons. By Subsection (2) additional commons could be made subject to such rights. In my view Parliament intended in 1925 to confer the broadest possible rights of access for air and exercise to those commons, subject only to the limitations set out in paragraphs (a) to (d) of the proviso to section 193 subsection (1).

87. The rights of access for air and exercise extend over the whole of the Commons in question, including any tracks across them . Walking along such tracks for the purpose of taking air and exercise is permitted by Section 193. Indeed, using the tracks across a common will often be the most convenient way of taking air and exercise, particularly in a wooded area such as Ranmore Common.

88. Since the dicta in Mienes v. Stone are obiter and conflict with each other I am free to conclude that the rights of access for air and exercise conferred by Section 193 are not confined to access on foot, but extend to access on horseback. I do so conclude. Riding would have been a normal way of taking air and exercise in 1925. In paragraphs (a) to (d) of the proviso to section 193 subsection (1) Parliament set out those limitations which it wished to impose on the rights of access.

89. Not merely do paragraphs (a) to (d) not specifically exclude horseriding, but paragraph (c), which excludes the drawing or driving of carriages, carts, et cetera, would be otiose (or addressed specifically to motor vehicles) if the public were not allowed to bring horses on to commons at all. In 1925 many, if not most carriages, carts and so forth, would still have been horse drawn.

However if still not convinced by these arguments then consider that horse riders have been riding freely over the open common land since time immemorial. Therefore a prescriptive or customary rights exists as it must to all commons not subject to any other deed or grant as you assure me is the case at Shortheath. For John who told me that commoners have rights but no legal interest in the soil I have pasted advice from Defra's website.

Why do you need to know who the commoners/owners are?

Because they have a legal interest in the common. Thus, no proposal concerning the Governance or management of common land should be taken without the consent of the Owner(s) and commoners, because they represent the legal interests in the common. It is also essential, when attempting to promote any activity on common land, to consult with those who have a legal interest before applying to the Secretary of State for consent (see CONSULTATION OVER MANAGEMENT, LEGAL FRAMEWORK and BUILDING, FENCING AND WORKS).

For example. A number of the agri-environment schemes and other fund in options

It is a pity that this advice was not followed and the commoners were not consulted before any proposals for fencing the common were made on a wider scale.

I pine for a more sensible approach to saving our forests

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