HC Deb 04 July 1967 vol 749 cc1592-4
Dr. Dickson Mabon

I beg to move Amendment No. 5, in page 6, line 28, to leave out 'them' and to insert 'the Commission'.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Sydney Irving)

I wonder whether the Minister of State can guide the House. There are twelve successive Government Amendments. I wonder whether it would be for the convenience of the House for them to be considered together. The other Amendments are Nos. 6 to 16.

Mr. Stodart

That will be agreeable, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Dr. Mabon

Yes, I am much obliged, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Amendment No. 5 is a simple drafting one. Amendments Nos. 6 to 16 are eleven related Amendments which take up suggestions made by hon. Members opposite in Committee. I have discussed the various points with the County Councils Association, and the Amendments are very much commended by the Association as being sensible ones to make.

I expressed the view in Committee that we had not got quite right the solution in the Clause as originally drafted and that we ought to make some alterations to make the procedure clear. The effect of the Amendments is to provide that in areas of special planning control both the Commission and the Secretary of State will be advised of all planning applications of a kind specified in the appropriate direction. The Commission will then be required, after consultation with the local planning authority, to make representations to the authority on the manner of disposing of the application. The authority will then in turn advise the Secretary of State of its views on the Commission's recommendations. Finally—I think that this will commend itself to the House—the Secretary of State will decide whether or not he should call in the application for decision by himself. So here we now have a clear-cut piece of machinery which leaves the local planning authority with an effective voice on the one hand but at the same time gives a definite and important locus to the Commission and recognises the ultimate authority of the Secretary of State in planning matters.

Mr. Stodart

I am obliged to the Minister. I recall an occasion in Committee when I moved a series of Amendments about which the hon. Gentleman rather heat me about the head and then unex- pectedly said that he thought I had a point. He has met the main arguments that I put, no doubt without the lucidity that one associates with him. I felt that with the Clause as it originally stood in relation to area of social beauty the Secretary of State and the local planning authority could arrange things entirely between themselves without the Commission being brought into the picture at all, thereby making what I thought was complete nonsense of the position which we think that the Commission should occupy.

The Amendments operate if the Secretary of State asks for information about applications for planning permission, and the information must be given so far as these areas are concerned to the Commission as well, and after the Commission has talked things over with the local planning authority in question, it is bound to make its recommendations to the local planning authority as to how it ought to proceed. If there is a dispute, as the hon. Gentleman said, the Secretary of State has the last word, as he had before the Amendments were made; but they have the effect of bringing the Commission into the centre of the picture so far as these particular areas are concerned. Accordingly, I think that the Amendments considerably improve the Bill.

Amendment agreed to.