Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords who have spoken on this amendment and to the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, for having proposed it. As the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, indicated, there was an interesting and wide-ranging debate in Committee on these issues, which clearly showed a range of opinions and the interest in the issue. I have borne in mind the point of the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, when he emphasised the fact that the seascape could be enjoyed by looking from the sea to the land as well as from the land to the sea. I always recall that individual who, in that most attractive of lakeside views in the north Italian lakes, admired so much a monastery on a little island in the centre of the lake that he moved from his side to the monastery when a property became available. Never again did he have as good a view as he had from the land, looking at the house that he had bought. Therefore, we have to bear in mind the question of seascapes, which has a certain subjective quality, as well as the issue of whether one is looking at them from the land or from the sea. Of course, the Government have considered the issues a great deal since Committee. I was grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, for indicating that the meeting that took place with officials advanced the cause somewhat further. There was no difference between the Government and noble Lords about the value of seascapes and the extent to which this Bill would not reach its objectives if it did not take them into account. However, our problem is the issue of definition. The Government published the high-level marine objectives on 20 April, and there are a number of references in that document to seascapes. It highlights the fact that the Government have a clear commitment on this issue. The objectives also contain a high-level definition of what might be considered a seascape, which is inevitably very wide—even to the point, noble Lords may think, of vagueness. But we have all struggled with the issue of definition, and we all recognise how difficult it is. The definition refers to: ""An area of sea, coastline and land, whose character results from the actions and interactions of land with sea, by natural and/or human factors"." This is the Government’s commitment to seascapes. We have a working definition; I am all too well aware of the fact that my noble friend Lord Howarth seeks to participate in this debate and might be a little scathing about the limited dimension of the objective and the vagueness of the definition. We were under pressure from the committee to recognise the issue of seascapes and produce some definition, which is what we have done. I appreciate the work that the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, and my noble friend Lord Howarth have done in seeking a definition, but there is a great deal of work still to be done. We need to develop our understanding of the nature of seascapes. That is why, inevitably, the Government are somewhat nervous about enshrining the current position in legislation. Legislation, after all, has some degree of permanence to it and a great deal of work still needs to be done on definition. It is difficult to set out what we mean by a valued seascape and, consequently, one that deserves special protection. Our ideas are bound to evolve over time as we understand these issues more. I hope noble Lords will appreciate the extent to which the Government have wrestled with this issue and the fact that we are making some progress. I say to the noble Baroness and to all noble Lords who supported her—although the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, entered his caveat—that there are sufficient difficulties about this issue for us to have anxieties about how we express them in legislation. English Heritage is looking at the characteristics of historic landscapes in parts of the marine environment where aggregate dredging takes place, and Natural England recognises the importance of seascapes. Its landscape policies explicitly encompass seascapes and, as a statutory adviser on the natural environment, the advice it gives takes into account all relevant impacts on landscapes and seascapes. It has recognised in its action plan, the European Landscape Convention to which the noble Baroness referred in her opening remarks, the need to develop a seascape characterisation of the English coastline to help inform planning and management decisions. So work is going on. We cannot accept a definition in the Bill, but there is clear recognition in the high-level objectives—which will feed into the marine policy statement and, in turn, inform the marine plans—of a commitment. As the plans are drawn up under the widespread consultation mechanism we have defined clearly in the Bill, the regionally important seascapes of whatever formulation —views from or towards the land, or precious coastal environments—can and will be identified. Decisions on licensing and consenting developments which then follow will need to take account of these matters. This may not be a designation process, as such, because we have some problems with that concept, but nothing may be deposited or built in the sea, and so affect a seascape, without a licence to do so. So there is protection with regard to our valued perspectives. I want to reassure the House that we do not have to wait for marine plans to be in place for seascapes to be taken into account. We are already able to consider them through consultation on current development applications, which are handled by the department. English Heritage and Natural England advise strongly on cultural and conservation matters, and decisions are influenced accordingly. We try to obtain consensus through amending proposals where we can, and we have, for example, moved the siting of wind farms further offshore after representations. If the marine plan conflicted with local consensus on a view which should be protected, we would not automatically expect one to trump the other. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis. One of the reasons for allowing "relevant considerations" to be taken into account by marine plan authorities such as the MMO is precisely because of the kind of issue to which the noble Baroness has given voice with her amendment.