Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

Would the noble Lord give way for a moment? I know it is late at night. I will give an example that I was thinking of giving when supporting my amendment to crystallise for him in a practical way the situation that the Marine Management Organisation might find itself in. I will ask him to put himself in its shoes and think through what help he would need to be able to reach a decision that would not be hugely challenged and unsubstantiated. I hate to say that the ghastly example is the additional runway at Heathrow. Here is a real issue of major requirement and major demand—although, with the credit crunch, perhaps not for the next few years. There is a prediction that there will be huge requirement for additional air transport and the proposition is to create another runway at Heathrow. There are massive air pollution issues associated with that, apart from the amenity problems of additional flights and so on. There is another proposition that says it should not be built at Heathrow but in the Thames estuary. I simply want to say the word ““Maplin”” for those noble Lords who are old enough to remember what trying to build an estuary airport involves. Just do not go there. There are other propositions that have good economic benefits and go for a more dispersed system—perhaps to build it at Gatwick and have a much more train-based feeder system into any additional airport. This is just the sort of debate that the Marine Management Organisation will be in with some very complex environmental, economic and social issues and no good answer. The only way that that decision will be adequately made in terms of Heathrow is by saying, ““Look, we have to do this in a way that does not screw up the environment because that is not just for once, that is for ever””. The Marine Management Organisation will be in that situation. The Minister Huw Irranca-Davies is very keen for this organisation to be a consensus-developing body, but when push comes to shove at the end of the day, as we have shown at Heathrow, there is sometimes a point where you cannot get a consensus and you have to have an overriding principle that says the first thing we have to protect for the long term is the environment. That is what is missing here.