Commons Bill [Lords]

I am genuinely sorry to disappoint the hon. Gentleman, because I understand the concerns of his constituents which he has explained so well this afternoon. Were he from another party I might have accused him of putting together material for a ““Focus”” leaflet, but it is clear that he has worked hard on the issue in pursuit of his constituents’ interests. However, the Bill will not change the legislative landscape in that area and to do what he is asking would be to go too far. The change would mean, for example, that a developer who had dug an exploratory hole in the middle of the land by the date could press the registration authority to reject any future application for registration out of hand, on the basis that at some point in the future the planning consent over the land might be implemented. Even if local recreational use appeared to meet all the tests in clause 15, there could be no viable application to register the land because that single hole had been dug. We do not think that that can be right. Nor did we feel when we looked at this issue that we could exempt land from registration only if the pre-construction works had been substantial. We did consider including an indicator such as ““substantial””, ““significant”” or some such wording. However, using such language would clearly reduce the clarity of the clause, and we have not had drawn to our attention any real-life cases where substantial pre-construction works have in fact been undertaken on land that is likely to be eligible for registration as a green based on past use. On a previous occasion, my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Tom Levitt) has spoken about two particular cases in his constituency where areas that have been given planning consent—at Fairfield and New Mills—have been subject to local controversy over applications to register the land as a green. The hon. Member for Ludlow (Mr. Dunne) has spoken of a similar controversy in his own constituency. Today, we have heard the hon. Member for North Shropshire on the subject of land at Oswestry. I therefore understand that such cases provoke powerful and conflicting emotions and that a real sense of frustration can be felt by those seeking to promote developments, whether for social purposes or for business reasons. But I have a responsibility to strike the right balance in this clause, and I believe we have done that. I am grateful to the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire for acknowledging the concessions that we have made so far. What we cannot do is to provide, in effect, that planning permission overrides in all cases the ability to register land as a green even if the requisite use has taken place. I therefore ask the hon. Gentleman not to press his amendment.