HC Deb 16 June 1976 vol 913 cc635-6
Mr. Guy Barnett

I beg to move Amendment No. 16, in page 11, line 35, at end insert— '(3) As soon as practicable after a transfer scheme is approved or made by the Secretary of State any district council to whom an interest in land is transferred by the scheme or by whom any land is to be managed in pursuance of management arrangements included in the scheme shall publish in at least one local newspaper circulating in the area of the new town a notice which—

  1. (a) states that the scheme has been approved or made and the date on which it was approved or made, and
  2. (b) specifies at least one place in that area where a document describing the scheme's provisions and identifying the property affected by the scheme or arrangements can be inspected.'
The hon. Member for Bromsgrove and Redditch (Mr. Miller) will recall that in Committee he moved an amendment which would provide for advertisements to appear in newspapers where transfer schemes were being undertaken. Hon. Members on the Committee, and I hope the House, will also be aware that in the Bill itself there is a provision for individual notices to be given to occupiers of any property affected by a transfer scheme as to the manner in which they are to be affected. I agree that there should be some public notification of a transfer scheme, and it is in response to the hon. Gentleman's amendment that we are now bringing forward this amendment to the Bill.

The hon. Member's own amendment had certain drafting difficulties which, I think, we have avoided in this one. As I indicated in Committee, there are precedents in other legislation for advertisements in local newspapers where action by a corporation or authority affects the ownership or the use of land. We agree that this is a valuable way of bringing a transfer scheme to the attention of people living in a new town. The amendment is straightforward and self-explanatory, and I commend it to the House.

8.15 p.m.

Mr. Hal Miller

I am grateful to the Under-Secretary of State for having taken this matter away from the Committee and coming before the House with this amendment. It goes a long way to meeting the point which we made in Committee.

The only point I would wish to make is that we still have not succeeded in getting consultation for the residents of new towns who are affected. We do not have any means of searching out their views. My own new town has developed a residents' association of quite considerable extent, and it was hoping that there would have been means for consulting it about these proposals, but nothing is laid down in the procedure.

I do not wish to carp at the manner in which the Under-Secretary of State met his undertaking. We are most grateful to him and we are happy to accept the amendment.

Amendment agreed to.

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