Commons Bill [Lords]

I was wondering when I might test your patience, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I thought that it would be helpful for the Minister to have the maximum amount of information. The point is that the whole project, which would be of enormous significance to the town of Oswestry and the surrounding area, depends on the status of the Five Acre site. It was the subject of a village green application in August 2004, which went to a public inquiry last October. The inspector rejected the application based on current law. That whole exercise involved more than £100,000 in legal costs. Clearly, until we clarify exactly how clause 15 will emerge from our deliberations, and what effect amendment No. 10 will have on it, there is some uncertainty. I cannot help adding that the people who put in the application are splendid—they are some of the greatest campaigners for health services, who have been out in wet, filthy weather collecting petitions. On this issue, sadly, they have been terribly misguided. However, we have a wonderful iron age fort called Old Oswestry to go and walk on. If the project is stalled, the worry is that the primary care trust will be under tremendous pressure from other parts of Shropshire, including parts of my constituency, and that the money will go elsewhere, a chain reaction will set in, and all the projects will fall. Advantage West Midlands is seriously concerned that a precedent could be set for other brownfield sites across the country. It makes a good point that such sites are often in areas of heavy contamination and deprivation, which are often the last to be developed. Therefore, they are also the ones with the longest record of use by local residents for casual recreation, dog walking and so on. The problem is that those sites cost tens of thousands of pounds to investigate, and remedial work such as removing contaminants and preparing sites for construction can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. In that regard, I would really like to hear the Minister’s definition of what is meant by ““construction works”” in amendment No. 10, paragraph (b). I would also like an explanation of why we cannot revert to the wording of sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii), under paragraph (c), which would be the effect of my hon. Friend’s amendment (a) in removing the word ““construction””. Do remedial works and clearing trees, rubbish and detritus of 50 years count as the beginning of construction? Does building a security fence, which is the prerequisite of any construction site, count as the beginning of construction works? Does carrying out an archaeological survey count? In some parts o the country, it would be unconscionable to start developing a site without carrying out serious archaeological investigations. Surely, those are an integral part of the whole construction process. If clause 15 does not allow those processes, bluntly, it will make development of those sites across the country considerably more risky and unlikely to happen. Let me give the House an idea of the strength of feeling locally. The current leader of Oswestry borough council, Councillor David G. Lloyd, told me this morning:"““The weed-strewn, abandoned railway land in the town of Oswestry has been an economic and visual blight on the town’s landscape for decades.""The town and borough is crying out for improved health care provision and the disused railway land is the perfect location to accommodate a modern GP practice and a 50 bed nursing/care facility for which outline planning consent has been given and which would also be the hub for other essential medical and community care services.""It has the backing of the public who are frustrated by the delay caused by a handful of people who are opposed to the project.""New residential development for which planning has already been given plus a modern health village together with the former Station Building refurbished at a cost of more than £2 million would provide an attractive gateway to the town rather than the eyesore that exists at present and which has meant that some businesses bring clients into the town via an alternative route.””" Councillor Lloyd was referring to himself at that point. I know that when he takes potential investors into Oswestry he does not take them past that site because it is so off-putting—or was, until a large wooden fence was built around it. Similarly, Oswestry borough council’s regeneration officer has said:"““when one looks at the benefit to the whole borough it would be unthinkable that this area was left to go back to the wilderness it once was. In fact since it has been cleared the vandalism in that area has decreased enormously and personally I feel if the area was regenerated, it would boost civic pride, improve the main artery into the town from the North which currently such a would be investor would come along, just promotes an area of misery and poverty not one of vibrancy and vitality.””" I should like the Minister to explain why the word ““construction”” is necessary. It makes the definition unnecessarily narrow, unless preliminary work of the kind that I have described—clearing a site, building a security fence and carrying out environmental tests and preparatory work—counts as part of the construction process. Most people would interpret construction in the same way as my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire: starting with bricks and mortar, and laying foundations. In this instance, that is the easy bit. By far the most difficult part of the project has been getting all the interested parties together. I have attended more than 15 meetings—every two months—as well as meetings here.