Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

There has been a fascinating interchange of views and I am swaying in various directions. It is clear that the board of Natural England will have to be a Solomon in its work. Much depends on the drafting. Here I am at one with the noble Baroness, Lady Young. We are talking about irreconcilable conflicts. My memory is not good and I do not remember whether the Sandford principle was incorporated into the national parks legislation in 1995—but I have always seen that as an irreconcilable conflict. Some conflicts are small and the SSSI issue is different from landscape issues. I am therefore not entirely at one with my noble friend Lord Judd. He is president of Friends of the Lake District and I am a mere vice-president; and we are both vice-presidents, as is the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, of the Council for National Parks. So I am torn. On the whole, I favour Sandford here, particularly as the Bill includes subsections (2)(a) and (2)(b)—the first two purposes—but that can be applied only when the chips are down. The noble Baroness, Lady Young, mentioned the Cairngorm funicular, which is a classic case where wild landscape has been destroyed. The noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, mentioned the bluestones, a classic example of destroying a very sensitive part of a national park. They were massive developments, but many are not massive, so while we need to think more about the drafting, I favour something along the lines of the amendment.