Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

moved Amendment No. 134A:"Page 24, line 26, at end insert—" ““(   )   After paragraph 1, insert— 1A   (1)   A National Park authority in Wales shall consist of an appropriate balance of national and local members, consisting of— (a)   a specified number of directly elected members who are to be elected in a poll of all those who, on the day of the poll— (i)   would be entitled to vote as electors at a local government election in an electoral area falling wholly or partly within the National Park, and (ii)   are registered in the register of local government electors at an address within the National Park; and (b)   a specified number of other members to be appointed by the Minister in the National Assembly for Wales; and ““specified”” means specified in the relevant order. (2)   The total number of elected members must exceed the number of other members having regard to the minimum proportions for the Minister’s appointees as described in sub-paragraph (3) below. (3)   The total number of members of a National Park authority in Wales who are appointed by the Minister shall be a minimum proportion of 25 per cent. (4)   The Minister in the National Assembly for Wales shall consult all relevant authorities and interested bodies in specifying the number of local authority members, community council members and other members to be appointed by him in the relevant order.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I apologise because I realise that much of this was debated in Committee, but unfortunately I was indisposed and could not speak—literally. I had no voice at all at that time. But I want to make a firm statement on why we need to reform the membership of national parks in Wales and introduce directly elected members. I declare an interest as a trustee of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales. With that in mind, noble Lords may realise what I am about to say. Nominees are not whiter than white, and elected people are far better. I shall give three examples of what has happened with nominees as members of a national park. First, I refer to a local government nominee. The member resided 60 miles from a national park boundary. He chaired the planning committee and, as chair, he gave a casting vote allowing planning permission to go ahead to permit an open-cast coal site to be developed against much local opposition. He lived 85 miles away from the community directly affected by that environmental degradation. In the following 15 years that continued. He created a precedent as there are more coal reserves beneath the adjoining land. I should point out that 20 per cent of Wales is national park—that is, one fifth. The second example concerns a Welsh Assembly Government appointee. He became chair of the strategy and policy committee, and chair of the working party within the national park that wrote the unitary development plan. He lived on the edge of a village; he owned land locally and, by stealth, got written into the development plan, a proposal to build 200 houses on his own land. He then ““retired”” from the park committee. Three adjoining community councils wanted only about six affordable homes in each village, and no more. The locals opposed the 200-house project and had no direct input into its inclusion in the local plan. Needless to say, the development proposed was twice the size of the existing village. The third example is of the chairman of a national park being on the board of a company—these are all nominated people—located outside the park that is involved in producing and extracting aggregates: sand and gravel. During his tenure, large reserves of gravel in a very sensitive river valley in the national park were earmarked for future extraction. The individual has now retired as chairman of the authority and the decision still stands. In all these cases declarations of interest were not transparent and, in some cases, only declared retrospectively, following public pressure. Indeed, research shows that the interests of national park members do not appear transparently in the case of any national park in England and Wales. I am sure the Minister will agree that all these appointed members have not worked in the best interests of the national park, in terms of the environment, communities or sustainability. Only democratic accountability, through direct election involving people who reside in the national park, will meet the needs of the people who live there. If the electorate elects a member to represent them, that community will be sensitively represented, and not sidelined, as some communities are when a few favourite centres are promoted to the detriment of others. I speak of one local authority, which is 130 miles long and has six adjoining authorities that have very little land in the park but are all represented to the exclusion of democratically elected people. The present system is subject to lobbying within local authorities and, at quango level, to people very often appointed in their own interests. They pursue agendas not necessarily in the local interest, and frequently ignore places in greatest need. The present situation in Wales, as far as representation is concerned, is not as good as that in England. At least in England parish councils can nominate a member to serve with approval on the national park; Welsh community councils do not have that opportunity. However, directly elected representatives are a much better option and increase accountability to communities in Welsh national parks. I fully accept the need for nationally appointed members, but many communities are sidelined. Do not forget that parks have planning powers. This means that 20 per cent of planning in Wales is decided by nominees, not by elected people. The Minister, in his response to Amendment No. 307 in Committee stated:"““The Welsh Assembly Government are preparing to consult on membership arrangements and have expressed the view that they would not want the Bill to pre-empt the decisions that they will take in light of their consultation””.—[Official Report,27/2/06; col. 113.]" Indeed, direct elections are ruled out in that consultation; only decisions on appointed members will be made. Also, the Welsh Assembly, through secondary legislation, has the power to legislate on membership, but the evidence is that non-elected national park authorities are flawed. The wording of this amendment is derived directly from the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, which went through the Scottish Parliament. The Members of the Scottish Parliament have created two national parks: Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, and the Cairngorms. The Act contains provisions for direct elections to national parks in Scotland. Indeed, proposed subsections (1) and (2) of the new clause are derived directly from the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. Those representatives in the two national parks in Scotland are directly elected, as is proposed for Wales in this amendment. The same structure should find favour in Wales. The Welsh Assembly has secondary legislative powers, but we could push this through in this House, because the Welsh Assembly does not have the primary legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. If it had those powers it could introduce a provision such as this in Cardiff. I hope that the Assembly will take note of what is happening in Scotland and derive benefit from it. I acknowledge what the Minister said in Committee; having read the whole debate and what the Minister said at that time, I suspect that there is little scope for further debate. The Welsh Assembly is consulting on membership, but direct elections are by far the best route. Sadly, they are left out.