BODMIN MOOR COMMONS COUNCIL

These draft Rules of the Council have been approved by DEFRA and are now being circulated to all commoners, landowners and relevant local authorities for consultation prior to an application to the Secretary of State for confirmation.  If you have any representations on this Draft please inform the Secretary of the Council by letter or email before 28^th February 2018.  Your representations will be forwarded to the Secretary of State for him to take into account when deciding whether to confirm the Rules.

These Rules should be read in conjunction with The Bodmin Moor Commons Council Establishment Order 2015, which is available on the legislation.gov.uk website or from the Council Secretary.

John Keast (Secretary), Chykest, Warleggan, Bodmin, PL30 4HB.

Email: jkeastsurveyor@aol.com

UPDATE FROM COUNCIL CHAIRMAN – Steve Nankivell

I thought as a commoner or landowner you should have an update from the Commons Council. After the Secretary of State considered the response from the consultation in the spring of 2015 an Order was confirmed forming a Council for the better management of Bodmin Moor.  In February 2016 the Returning Officer, Julie Dowton, published notices asking for nominations from each Section of the Moor and called an election on the 29^th February 2016 at Cardinham Village Hall.  The Returning Officer received 14 nominations for graziers, 4 for non-graziers and 4 nominations for representatives for the landowners. They were all duly elected without opposition.  One Section – St Cleer – did not put forward any nominations for graziers. The Returning Officer has since worked with St Cleer commoners and they now have graziers elected giving us a full Council of 23 Members and 2 co-opted Members.

At a meeting in September 2016 officers were elected as follows:-

Chairman Steve Nankivell 

Vice chairman Richard Nankivell 

Secretary John Keast

Treasurer Martin Eddy

Co-opted Julie Dowton as Welfare Officer and Chair of the Equine Policy and Welfare Committee.

The priority of the Council has been to draft Rules without which we could not effectively function. We have been consulting with DEFRA with several drafts being produced which has taken longer than expected.  The principal functions of the Council are set out in the Establishment Order and include:-

(a)  Managing agricultural activities on the Commons;

(b)  Managing vegetation on the Commons;

(c)  Managing rights of common on the Commons;

(d)  Making rules relating to the above and the leasing and licensing of rights of common;

(e)  Preparing and maintaining a register of the grazing animals on the Commons; and

(f)  removing animals unlawfully permitted to graze on the Commons.

To effectively undertake this work in due course the Council will be collecting levies from graziers and non-graziers.  The sums to be collected will be decided at a future Council meeting.

We have also dealt with Pony welfare. On this issue the Council was ready to support Julie Dowton who was co-opted onto the Council as Welfare Officer and is Chair of a new Equine Committee in recognition of the work already achieved before the Council was formed. For many years Julie has been, and continues to be, the contact for all sorts of issues on the moors and has always worked with the Police and APHA.  We are pleased to report that since the East Moor clearance in September 2016 there have been no reported cases of malnourished or sick ponies.  Unfortunately there have still been a number of cases of adverse social media reports which are dealt with as they arise.

We have started to produce a website – bodminmoorcommonscouncil.co.uk. It will be developed to share information on the work of the Council and save costs in disseminating information to all parties with an interest in the Bodmin Moor and the management of the activities on the Moor.

We look forward to your continued support for the work of the Council.