Planning Bill

This is an important group of amendments about consultation and publicity arrangements on national policy statements. A little amendment, Amendment No. 73, which is in my name and that of my noble friend, is tucked away in this group. We have also added our names to Amendments Nos. 66 and 84, which were tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin of Roding, on the ability of disabled people to take part in the consultations and developments. I shall say no more about those because the noble Lord introduced them in an excellent way and we agree with everything that he said. I also added my name to Amendment No. 74, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Judd, on national parks. I was asked to do so at a time when we thought we might reach this amendment on Monday last week. The noble Lord obviously shared the Minister’s optimism about the progress of this Committee. But I shall say something about it shortly. I want to give the support of the Liberal Democrats to the general collection of amendments tabled by the Conservatives and spoken to by the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart. The only reason we did not table similar amendments is because they pre-empted us and there was no need to duplicate them. There is a view, which we hold, that the Bill is too general and too vague on how public consultation and publicity on national policy statements will work. I shall repeat what the noble Earl quoted from the Bill because it is crucial. Clause 7(2) says that such consultation and publicity will be carried out, "““as the Secretary of State thinks appropriate””." That is not good enough for something as important as this. Perhaps the general principle should be set down as Amendment No. 62 proposes, or perhaps the bare minimum of what the Secretary of State has to do to publicise and consult should be set down. We would also like an explanation of what consultation means because it is not very clear. Clause 7(4) states: "““The Secretary of State must consult such persons … as may be prescribed””." I have hunted through the Bill and cannot find who will prescribe and what the process will be. Perhaps I have just not found it in this long Bill, but consultation is a two-way process. There is the question of who has a right to be told automatically and directly, which is the outgoing part of consultation, and there is the incoming part of consultation. If only prescribed persons are consulted, does that mean that anyone who happens to be interested because he will be affected can be ignored because he is not a prescribed person? That is crucial. I am assuming that if someone living next door to me sends some comments on a development in which he is interested, at the very least his letter will be read by somebody. Will that be the case if he is not a prescribed person? The other question is whether the representations that are made will be published by the Government. Organisations such as Friends of the Earth or those wanting to build nuclear power stations will make representations and it will not matter whether the Government publish what they say as they will publish it themselves so that interested people can find out. But my neighbour may not have that facility or know how to do that, so will the Government publish the representations that they receive? That leads to the question raised by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith. Will the Government have to give reasons for the decisions they are making and, by implication, reasons for rejecting some of the representations that are made to them? Clearly on issues such as building nuclear power stations, new motorways, or whatever, some of the representations will be rejected as they will get different views in large quantities. These are questions on the principles of Clause 62 referring to consultation that is, "““within a transparent and fair framework””." Those are important words. Will it be a transparent framework in which organisations or individuals can take part, or will it be a restricted consultation with people whom the Government think have some rights because of their status as campaigning organisations, representatives of developers, or whatever? Amendment No. 62 may or may not be the right one to put into legislation but the principles are fundamental. Amendment No. 64 refers to the consultation period. Twelve weeks may or may not be right but we need to know how the consultation will work. It is crucial to have some indication in the Bill of minimum arrangements. Amendment No. 65 lists a number of quangos and other organisations that ought to be consulted. I have some doubts about whether that is the right approach simply because if the names of such organisations are to be included, it should be made clear that they are a minimum. It may be that in other areas the list of organisations that the Government has to consult is set out in regulations rather than in primary legislation, and that may be the way forward here. It helps everybody concerned to know whom the Government have to consult. It seems extraordinary that this legislation does not specify that the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly are statutory consultees. I assume that that is the case in view of the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith. They clearly ought to be. Amendment No. 67 is interesting because it requires adequate local publicity when there are site-specific issues or issues that are likely to affect a particular area or type of area. One assumes that that will take place, but the Bill does not say do. Amendment No. 72 was tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, to include parish councils and community councils in Wales. Amendment No. 68 is a different version tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith. Parish councils have got to be included. The Government may say that these are national level policy statements and parish councils have nothing to do with them. In many cases, that may be the case. Most parish councils will not be interested in most national policy statements. However, particularly when they are site specific or are likely to have site-specific implications, it is vital that parish councils are involved. Parish councils have a right to be consulted on all planning applications. The later amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, refers to applications to the Infrastructure Planning Commission. If parish councils were not included in that, it would be a reduction of their present rights. At the moment, no matter what the application is, whether it is for the extension of a kitchen or for a nuclear power station, the parish council is consulted by the local planning authority as of right. It is important that that right should remain. It should apply to community councils in Wales, which are simply parish councils by another name in a different country. My noble friend Lady Hamwee and I tabled Amendment No. 73. It includes community councils in Scotland. They are rather different bodies. They are not set up on the same statutory basis as parish and community councils in England and Wales, but the principle remains that they should be consulted. Amendment No. 74 was tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Judd. It refers to national park authorities. Nobody can wax more lyrical than the noble Lord about the benefit and glory of national parks. I am not going to try to match him, but I want to underline that national parks are planning authorities in their own right. All other planning authorities in their own right—all those that I can think of anyhow—are listed in the Bill. National parks are not, despite the fact that they are planning authorities and determine planning applications, just as if they were a district council or a London borough council. I think it is probably an oversight that they are not in the Bill. Like the noble Lord, Lord Judd, I would like an assurance from the Minister that that is the case. It would be quite wrong to omit them from this consultation.