The Ministry of Defence owns an army training base at Warcop near Appleby, Cumbria. They undertake live-fire training and the surrounding danger area where ricochets can fall is common land. The MOD applied to extinguish the rights, but not de-register the land as common land and this was agreed after a public enquiry in 2001. At the time the MOD gave the undertaking that if Warcop ceased to be a military training area the land at Hilton, Murton and Warcop Commons would be re-instated as common land .
More recently the MOD have decided they wanted to de-register the land as common land arguing that the 2006 Commons Act does not safeguard their ability to train. They held a consultation in 2012 asking to restructure their previous undertakings. For all the details see https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/warcop-training-area-restructuring-of-common-land-undertakings-consultation
On the 6th on November the Minister of Defence Anna Soubry concluded that MoD could proceed with the proposal to de-register the land as commons land. The MOD will now be applying to Cumbria County Council to de-register the land.
The Foundation for Common Land will be objecting to their proposal.
