A piece of land on the Lizard Peninsula has been granted public rights, 55 years after it was first suggested.

A strip of land on Garro Lane, just south of Mullion, has now been registered as ‘common land’.

It is described as being mixed vegetation and approximately 0.63 hectares in size.

The Open Spaces Society, which applied to register the land, has welcomed the decision by Cornwall Council to grant the request.

It is the conclusion of a process that goes back more than half a century.

In 1968, an application was made to register the land as common land but was subject to an objection. The applicant withdrew the application and the land’s provisional registration was cancelled.

However, part 1 of the Commons Act 2006(3) reopened the opportunity to rescue lost commons that were excluded in these circumstances. Under paragraph 4 of schedule 2 to the 2006 Act the land became eligible for re-registration.

The Open Spaces Society said its application “provided evidence that the land is waste land of a manor, which means that it can be registered as common land.”

Frances Kerner, the Society’s commons re-registration officer, said: “This is an example of a provisional registration of common land, made under the 1965 Commons Registration Act, being cancelled without full consideration given at the time to the merits of and challenges to the application. It is pleasing that the land is now protected.

“The part of Garrow [sic] Lane which has become protected by registration is up to 25 metres wide – a legacy of the former more extensive wastes which once covered much of the Lizard Peninsula. The success of our application should ensure that it remains unenclosed for future generations to enjoy.”

The Open Spaces Society 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.

Common land is land subject to, or formerly subject to, ‘rights of common’ – such as to graze animals or collect wood – 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.