Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

That is probably—in fact, definitely—one to the Minister. But the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, made the point that the views of residents of the park are important. The duality the Minister mentioned is absolutely recognised in my amendment by the 25 per cent proportion that shall be national members. Given the wide-ranging remit of national park authority business—which includes planning, consideration of where residents will have their homes in future, what sort of business will be allowed and so on—I must ask Members who spoke against this proposition why that is any different from members of any other local authority. Is it right that people who live 50 miles away are making fundamental decisions for those residents? That is what the indirectly elected members of county councils who live well outside the park boundaries are—my husband was one of them when he chaired Exmoor National Park. I speak with no disrespect for what he, or anyone else outside parks who represented national park authorities, did, but the fact is that those who live and work in the park authority are best placed. On the argument about how you would qualify, those rules about whether you live or work there, and what happens if you lose you job and so on, are all well laid down in local authority elections legislation. The noble Lord, Lord Judd, says that he is bemused. I know that he is never disingenuous, so I could not possibly accuse him of that. Nevertheless, this argument will be discussed again. It is right that residents should have a say. I was not aware that the first Scottish park has locally elected members elected by a specified park, but I am interested to hear that and will look into it further before report stage. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.