UNENCLOSED land adjacent to Trewellard Common, seven miles north-west of Penzance, has been recognised as common land.

Planning Inspector Paul Freer has granted an application by the Open Spaces Society to register as common about 0.7 hectares of land situated south-east of the village of Trewellard. The land comprises brambles and bracken.

Common land is land subject to, or formerly subject to, rights of common — to graze animals or collect wood for instance—or waste land of the manor not subject to rights. The public has the right to walk on nearly all commons, and to ride on many. Works on common land require the consent of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) via the Planning Inspectorate, under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006.

Trewellard Common was provisionally registered as common land by Cornwall County Council in 1969. Following objections, a hearing was held in 1975 by a commons commissioner who confirmed the registration of most of the land but refused the registration of a small part because of a dispute relating to rights of common.

However, part 1 of the Commons Act 2006 reopened the opportunity to rescue lost commons which were excluded in these circumstances, and the disputed part of Trewellard Common became eligible for re-registration. The application made by the society showed that the land is manorial in origin and that it remains “waste land of a manor” to this day — that is open, uncultivated and unoccupied.

“The newly-registered land is now restored as common land, and will be protected long into the future,” said Frances Kerner, the Open Spaces Society’s commons re-registration officer.

The Open Spaces Society, which was founded in 1865 and is Britain’s oldest national conservation body. It campaigns to protect common land, village greens, open spaces and public paths, and people’s right to enjoy them.