HC Deb 08 February 1984 vol 53 cc871-2
9. Mr. Knox

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he is satisfied with the speed with which planning applications are being dealt.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Neil Macfarlane)

Most local authorities are to be congratulated on achieving and sustaining marked improvements in the speed of their decisions on an increasing volume of applications. I hope that all local authorities will follow that example.

Mr. Knox

Is my hon. Friend aware that in the second quarter of 1983 26 per cent. of the planning applications to the Peak District national park took longer than three months to determine? Is he further aware that that is a deterioration of 3 per cent. on the second quarter of 1982? What will he do about it?

Mr. Macfarlane

My hon. Friend has taken a close interest in this matter for a long time. I am not satisfied with the statistics and I shall want to look closely at what my hon. Friend said. We have taken steps designed to examine authorities that are lagging in performance. Most local planning authorities have made an improvement. Some slow improvement has been made by the Peak District park planning board since 1981, but clearly the figures remain unacceptable.

Mr. Wrigglesworth

Is the Minister aware that so long as one planning application remains on the table at Teesside the whole area will be blighted? I refer to the application to bury nuclear waste under houses on Teesside. Will the Minister cut short that application by making it clear to NIREX, which has made it, that a proposal to put nuclear waste under houses will not be tolerated?

Mr. Macfarlane

The hon. Gentleman must remember the timing of such matters. No such application has been received by my Department. That is how the matter stands at the moment.

Mr. Robert B. Jones

Will my hon. Friend re-examine the system of appeals against non-determination within the eight-week period? Does he agree that there is no advantage to applicants who appeal under that procedure, because they might as well let the local authority take its course since the appeal procedure is equally slow?

Mr. Macfarlane

I take my hon. Friend's point. We have done something by issuing a circular on the conduct of appeals, with the aim of achieving speedy decisions. I hope that my hon. Friend's example is acknowledged by the circular.