§ Lords Amendment No. 7: In page 9, line 33, leave out "subsection (2)" and insert "subsections (2) and (3)".
§ Mr. GreenwoodI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
The effect of this Amendment is to ensure that the local planning authority shall not adopt a local plan if the Minister has directed under subsection (3) that the plan shall not have effect unless approved by him. The condition which it is now sought to impose was included in the Bill as introduced, and the omission of the reference to the relevant subsection was inadvertent.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§
Lords Amendment No. 8: In page 9, line 43, after "him" insert:
(4) Where the Minister gives a direction under subsection (3) above, the local planning authority shall submit the plan accordingly to him for his approval".
§ Mr. GreenwoodI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
§ Mr. SpeakerWith this we can also take Lords Amendment No. 10.
§ Mr. GreenwoodThe purpose of this Amendment is to make explicit a procedural step which has so far only been implicit in the Bill. It relates to the Minister's power to "call in" a local plan so that, instead of its going forward for adoption in the standard fashion by the local planning authority, it would become subject to procedures leading to the Minister's approval.
So far the Bill has merely said in Clause 9(3) that the Minister may direct that a plan shall not be effective unless approved by him. It has said nothing 1411 about an obligation thereby resting upon the local planning authority to submit the plan to him for approval, although Clause 7(2), by its wording, contemplates that this will be done. The Amendment states categorically that, as a consequence of the Minister's direction that a local plan is not to have effect unless approved by him, the authority must submit the plan to him for his approval. Amendment 10 is purely drafting.
§ 9.45 p.m.
§ Mr. Graham PageWe had considerable discussion on this procedure earlier, and we endeavoured to point out that the procedure seemed to be defective in that the local authority could send a copy of the plan to the Minister and the very next day pass a resolution for adoption of it. Possibly this Amendment meets the case in that it obliges the local authority to obtain the Minister's approval and not to adopt before it does so. To that extent, although I recollect that it was either the Minister or the Parliamentary Secretary who did not seem to take in our point earlier, it seems to have been digested now and, if I read the Amendment correctly, the problem has been solved.
§ Question put and agreed to.