My Lords, the Committee appears to be in complete consensus on these amendments; I too am concerned about the gaping hole where heritage should sit within this Bill. Therefore, I am an enthusiastic supporter of the various amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, and would have added my name to them were they not so heavily oversubscribed. It is essential for heritage to be in the Bill to ensure that man’s many historic and essential interventions in the landscape can be preserved and enjoyed for centuries to come.
In his response to these comments at Second Reading, the Minister pointed to the presence of heritage in the 25-year environment plan—our first EIP—but without heritage being in the Bill, there is no requirement that it will be included in the second EIP or any later ones. If it is anything, heritage is a long-term concern and that needs permanent status within this legislation.
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As to why heritage is so important, we need look no further than the Exminster Marshes, about which I spoke earlier. The entirety of this SSSI Ramsar landscape is manmade, originally by the engineers and builders of the Exeter canal, which is England’s earliest. Latterly those marshes were extended by Brunel’s atmospheric South Devon Railway and the embankment that carries it alongside the estuary. Further drainage ditches and
levees maintain this internationally important habitat and it is nonsensical to separate the heritage infrastructure and origins from this essential natural environment. I should note for the record that Powderham’s ancient deer park is entirely manmade as well.
Finally, I note that the principal aim of the environmental targets in Clause 1(1)(b) is to address people’s enjoyment of the natural environment. Ever since the paintings of John Constable, and doubtless earlier, our enjoyment of the natural environment has been deeply entwined with our appreciation for our historic interventions within it. Those church spires, canal locks, follies, weirs and hedgerows so evocatively recalled by the noble Lords, Lord Inglewood, Lord Cormack and Lord Blencathra, are the objects through which we read and see ourselves within our landscape. They are what draw us to it for our well-being and our enjoyment. If we do not preserve them, we will lose that landscape and our relationship with it.