Right to Roam (Hansard, 12 May 2003)

§ Tony Cunningham
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the appeals procedure is for a landowner whose property has been entered in error as common land on the draft Right to Roam map. [111089]

§ Alun Michael
It is necessary to separate out two issues in responding to this question. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (the CROW Act) sets out how maps of open country and registered common land are to be prepared for the purposes of the statutory right of access. This work is being carried out in England by the Countryside Agency. The law dealing with the registration and other aspects of common land predates the CROW Act and is generally very complex.
As far as the CROW Act is concerned, there is a statutory right of appeal against the showing of common land on the Countryside Agencys maps of open country and registered common land on the ground that the land is not registered common land.
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§ Mr. Illsley
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the amount by which sulphur dioxide emissions could be reduced if coal fired power stations fitted with flue gas desulphurisation plant were used to the maximum load factor with consequential lower load factors at unabated plant. [107984]

§ Mr. Meacher
As part of the Governments plans to implement the revised Large Combustion Plant Directive, assessments are being carried out of a range of pollution control measures (including flue gas desulphurisation plant) and their impacts upon the environment and will be consulted upon in the near future.
The actual emissions of sulphur dioxide are varied between power stations because of the different sulphur contents in the fuels burnt and the different load factors at which individual power stations operate. No estimate has therefore been made of the amount by which sulphur dioxide emissions could be reduced if coal fired power stations fitted with flue gas desulphurisation plant were used to the maximum load factor with consequential lower load factors at unabated plant. The following table compares recent figures for the amount of sulphur dioxide that is discharged from power stations in the UK, with and without flue gas desulphurisation equipment.
However, there is no appeal against the showing of such land on the ground that it has been wrongly registered as common land.
As far as the law on common land more generally is concerned, I announced proposals for future legislation on common land last July that would include provision for wrongly registered land to be removed from local authority registers. Although we hope to bring forward measures as soon as parliamentary time permits, I can give no guarantee at this stage, either about the timing of legislation, or its scope.