UK Parliament / Open data

Debate on the Address

Proceeding contribution from Lord Harrison (Labour) in the House of Lords on Thursday, 16 November 2006. It occurred during Queen's speech debate on Debate on the Address.
My Lords, I, too, welcome the maiden speeches today, especially those by the two maidens on this side of the House. In today’s debate on the environment and local government, I should like to emphasise the need for strong, secure, stable and prosperous communities. I will not deal directly with the overarching themes of the Climate Change Bill or local government reform, but my message from Cheshire, and from the soundings that I take, is: please sort this out because we need resolution. I want to talk about what can be done practically at local level to achieve the laudable objectives of protecting the environment and modernising and incorporating local government. The two subjects I shall address are the work of the Cheshire Landscape Trust, of which I am a proud trustee, and the successful but silent industry of tourism, where the influential role played by local authorities helps to secure and strengthen local communities. Tourism, too, has to face up to environmental challenges. I call it a silent industry because we do not hear it talked about much in this House. Indeed, although my noble friend Lord Rooker, in his very good opening speech, said a lot about farming, tourism has been just as much afflicted by BSE and other problems. The Cheshire Landscape Trust was established in 1981 as a charity. It promotes sustainable development by linking the local with the global, and I think that that is the right way round. It has a proven track record of community-based action, with its remit to create greater awareness and to promote action to sustain our outstanding Cheshire landscape. That is an important element of what it does, and I believe that it has lessons for us all. The trust incorporates spatial planning documents with village and town design statements, and it has helped to set up parish landscape trusts. All this helps local people to decide for themselves their own future and their own environment. The trust has a slender workforce. It has two splendid officers, John Gittins and Katie Lowe, aided by part-timer Rachel Norton. It works by mobilising communities in Cheshire’s fascinating mosaic of market towns and handsome villages, encouraging residents to do the work themselves on, for instance, the village statements which then form the plans for further action to improve the environment. Practical expression is made in other ways, such as tree guardian schemes and the army of Cheshire parish tree wardens that has been established across the county. Since 1989, thousands of trees and shrubs have been planted and maintained by guardian volunteers. So while we have only two paid people, they have galvanised 176 tree wardens across 138 parishes, spurring hundreds of other Cheshire residents to take action and foster pride in their community. Here I turn to the Minister to say that if ever the Government wanted a good example of volunteerism, they have it in the Cheshire Landscape Trust. The trust also promotes a ““kids for trees”” project, whereby every child in Cheshire schools looks after a tree. It has a Cheshire orchard project, again reviving interest in something which has been undergoing a revival over the past years. Through the kids for trees project, the trust has been integrating itself into the education system, which is vital: get a kid interested in the environment when they are young and you have someone who will be interested for life. The example of the Cheshire Landscape Trust is being examined elsewhere in the United Kingdom and even has a European dimension, with its environmental work being taken to the Czech Republic and copied there. The trust is funded by Vale Royal Borough Council and other local authorities in Cheshire, but as always it is strapped for cash. However, given its practical help in improving the surrounding environment and bringing communities together through the agency of concern for the environment; its way of working with school children; its agency work for local authorities; and its gearing up of the volunteer process in communities, it should be celebrated—and I do so. The trust presses all the right buttons for the Government’s desire to build on sound and secure local communities. I ask my noble friend to take a closer look at the Cheshire Landscape Trust to seek to replicate its many virtuous and innovative activities throughout the United Kingdom. From little acorns—the title of the splendid local newsletter produced by the trust—do strong community oaks grow and thrive. The tourism industry is affected by security issues and terrorism, but it is my desire and hope that the 21st century will be one of tourism not terrorism. One thing we must respect in this industry is its bouncebackabilty, a word which has now been allowed into the Oxford English Dictionary, which I welcome. Tourism has been a successful industry, which is why it is sometimes neglected. I have to say that the Americans would take a different view: they look at successful industries and ask why they should not be more successful. Overseas visitor numbers are up by 8 per cent, while overseas earnings in the interests of the United Kingdom have now risen to £3,900 million a year and are forecast to rise by another 3.7 per cent by the end of 2006. Tourism was led by the Labour Government of 1964, with their Tourism Act, and Tourism Today, introduced by my noble friend Lord Smith of Finsbury when he was in another place. These are examples of how Labour Governments have a positive attitude, but I have to say with sorrow that I have found much in the way of reference to tourism or evidence of a tourism Act to place it within many of the concerns which interest your Lordships in this debate. There are problems in terms of tourism and the environment. I do not want to go deeply into the issue of whether taxes on flying should be increased or whether there should be fewer flights carrying tourists around the world, but tackling the matter would have an effect on the tourism industry. There is the more immediate domestic threat of the bed tax arising from the Lyons review, and I ask the Government to be cautious: do not tax a successful industry; liberate it to do even better in the future. There are also pockets of difficulty. Blackpool, which is an important element of the tourist industry for us in the north-west, needs a casino; it would be a box office hit for Blackpool to have its own Casino Royale. Tourism is also important for local government. I will not illustrate all the ways in which it is, but it is evident that what is good for local government is also good for tourism. I refer to the regeneration of our towns. I have in mind Chester and the improvements to the waterfronts of both the river Dee and the Shropshire Union Canal. I have to say that when I first came to Chester 30 years ago, it was a mess. It is now part and parcel of welcoming tourists to the county and enhancing their enjoyment in the city—not least in our revived waterfronts. There are threats to tourism in the form of climate change, but we need a mature attitude to be able to understand and adapt to changing conditions in which tourism can play its role. Ecotourism is marking the way. Some 5 per cent of tourists now travel with environmental concerns at heart. I give as an example not the bed tax, but the eco charge made in Cumbria. The sum of £1 is added to bills and each £1 is used to upgrade footpaths used regularly by hikers and walkers in the fells. Visitors and tourists can see an immediate change and the benefits of that hypothecated tax are usefully shown. Tourism is also important in saving our churches from extinction. The congregations of worshippers who used to praise God are now being replaced by congregations of visitors who worship the beauty of the architecture of our parish churches and cathedrals and the local and national history that they contain. The meeting places of the past are now the meeting places of the present and the future, again binding into that role of strengthening our communities. I, as an atheist committed to the well-being of churches and church buildings, regret the unwelcome words of the Archbishop of York recently attacking atheists for the diminishing rolls of those attending churches to worship. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, who is no longer in his place, spoke interestingly about the shrinking footprints of the efforts being made by the churches; perhaps he should attend to the shrinking footfall of fewer people attending our churches and the need to do something positive if we are to retain these homes of the community within our communities. I shall not touch on transport and its effect on tourism, which has been mentioned. I hope that one of these days it will be my pleasure to speak in support of the Government who bring back a revived and refreshed tourism Act that places tourism in its proper role in the 21st century, linking-in as it does to so many environmental, local authority and transport issues and policy areas for which the Government have real responsibility.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
687 c71-3 
Session
2006-07
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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