Basildon (Ministerial Visit) (Hansard, 13 June 1984)

§ 5. Mr. Proctor
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on his recent visit to Basildon.

§ 18. Mr. Amess
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement about his recent visit to Basildon.

§ Mr. Patrick Jenkin
The visit was a valuable opportunity to see developments being carried out in partnership between the private sector and the new town development corporation. I was much impressed with what I saw.

§ Mr. Proctor
On his visit, did my right hon. Friend detect, apart from among the rate spenders, a determination on the part of the ratepayers to support the Government's policy on rating legislation? In particular, did he notice that the ratepayers in the Basildon district council area cannot wait to see the council rate-capped and controlled?

§ Mr. Jenkin
Basildon is, by any standards, a massive over-spender against two of the most obvious yardsticks; it is budgeting to spend 17 per cent. above its target and 70 per cent. above its grant-related expenditure in the current year. Perhaps it will not surprise the hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham) to know that Basildon, too, appears on most of the lists that have been circulating in my Department.

§ Mr. Amess
When my right hon. Friend visited my constituency, did he notice that he entered a nuclear-free zone, a matter which is currently being investigated by the district auditor? Does the declaration of this zone mean that the leader of the local Marxist district authority contacted the leader of the Soviet Union to arrange that in the event of a nuclear war weapons would be so directed as to avoid Basildon?

§ Mr. Jenkin
After noting the example of those authorities which declare themselves nuclear-free zones, I am tempted to throw away all the locks on the doors and windows of my house and hang on the front gate a sign saying, "Burglar-free zone". I know that I shall be perfectly all right after that.

§ Dr. Cunningham
When all the petty abuse about Basildon council is set aside, is it not a fact that the Secretary of State did not arrange discussions with the council when he went to Basildon? Did not the Basildon electors just return the Labour party to office in the May elections, and will they not now notice the monumental contempt for the democratic processes that has been displayed by Conservative Members?

§ Mr. Jenkin
The leader of the Basildon council complained that he had not known of my visit although he had been informed of it beforehand by the chairman of the new town development corporation.

§ Dr. Cunningham
The right hon. Gentleman did not meet him.

§ Mr. Jenkin
No, I did not meet him, because he had led a deputation to my noble Friend Lord Bellwin only a few weeks previously and the whole subject of Basildon finance was discussed. I was there at the invitation of the private sector developer and of the new town development corporation under its distinguished chairman Dame Elizabeth Coker. I spent a most worthwhile and valuable morning.