There are now over 1,280 LNRs in England, covering almost 40,000 hectares, which range from windswept coastal headlands and ancient woodlands to former inner city railways and long abandoned landfill sites.
The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 combined elements of several of these categories in its definition of a nature reserve (Section 15).
The hope of the Special Committee was to see sites protected which represented sites of local scientific interest, which could be used by schools for field teaching and experiment, and in which people with no special interest in natural history could "...derive great pleasure from the peaceful contemplation of nature."
[3] To establish a LNR, the declaring local authority must first have a legal interest in the land concerned, for example, they could own it, lease it or have a nature reserve agreement with the owner.
[4] LNRs are almost always owned by local authorities, who often pass the management of the LNR onto County Wildlife Trusts.