Planning Bill

I, too, join the debate on location and site specificity at the start of the Bill. I take the point about the distinction between a site and a location. Nevertheless, appealing to tidy minds as it is to provide the possibility in every NPS of specific locations, that raises the question of the powers of the Infrastructure Planning Commission. That is where I have problems. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Boyd, mentioned transport in connection with development of an airport. I declare an interest now, as we will come on to airports in more detail later: I live not far from Heathrow, under one of its flight paths, and am affected by ground traffic to the airport, both rail and road. The number of times that the level crossing near my home is down because of the amount of rail transport is extremely frustrating. These things have a knock-on effect a long way down the line. I still find it almost impossible to understand how the Infrastructure Planning Commission, faced with a national policy statement that says that there will be expansion of an airport—not necessarily Heathrow—and properly going into the implications at ground level, will be able to say no to that application in the real world. Perhaps, however, the problems come at least as much in the powers of the IPC as they do in describing the scope of the NPS.