Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord Renton of Mount Harry, has done a tremendous amount, in his part of the world with his AONB, and in this House, introducing the original concept of AONBs having the statutory powers they do now. He did really groundbreaking work, laying the way open for the Government to adopt that in the subsequent Act that gave AONBs much better status. The noble Lord will be comforted to know that we will be dealing with the issues that he raised more fully under Amendment 106CA, so I will not address those now. It does not surprise me that the Minister wants to take powers away from local authorities—which plan between medium low water and medium high water—and give them to a quango. It does not matter whether the quango is Natural England or the Marine Management Organisation. The fact is that it is a quango. It could be that local authorities under this Bill would be required to take additional steps to pay attention to the MMO’s plans. Nevertheless, it would be right that the local authority would be left with the primacy of planning in this area, where so much human activity takes place. However, it does not surprise me because the Government have not been terrific at giving powers to local authorities. If anything, they have been busy taking them away, as they are doing here. I am surprised at the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, is going along with this attitude. I hope that between now and Report, he will talk to his Local Government Association colleagues and all the local authorities that are controlled by Conservatives, and see whether they are happy about losing their power and being subservient to a quango. I was talking recently at a meeting of CoastNet in Barnstable. Someone came up to me afterwards and asked what the Conservatives’ attitude would be to a quango. I said that I did not know but would find out during the course of the Bill. His question was whether it would be okay for quangos to have much more power. He was a member the estuary forum, I think, and concerned that it would be losing a say as it would not have elected representatives. The MMO will be a remote body. I worry that we are taking a step that will fundamentally undermine an enormous amount of what coastal authorities do. They will now be in the position of playing second fiddle to the MMO, which is a quango. In fact, it should be a much more equal relationship. We could, during later stages of the Bill, or on Report, remedy this by strengthening the hand of local authorities through other amendments, but, at the moment, they are not recognised at all. I am sorry that the LGA has not made better representations to us on this Bill. It has been remarkably silent. I do not think that we have had a briefing from it—if any noble Lord has, perhaps they would let me know. However, it has a special interest group which I expect to make representations to us and if it feels differently from me, I would accept that. I share the fondness of the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, for salt marshes. I am fond of everything about them, from curlews to salt marsh lamb—I do not eat the curlews; I just like listening to them—and I think they are wonderful places. But, again, they are so rarely under water. Of course, they are important. However, they are essentially land-based places, full of farmers, such as the noble Lord. Therefore, why should the MMO be primarily the planning body for them? That again, should rest with local authorities. There is a lot here that we should be coming back to in Committee and on Report. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 81A withdrawn. Amendments 81B and 82 not moved. Clause 40 agreed.